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    Watch Out for Her: A Novel
    Watch Out for Her: A Novel
    Watch Out for Her: A Novel
    Ebook374 pages6 hours

    Watch Out for Her: A Novel

    By Samantha M. Bailey

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    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.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster
    Release dateApr 26, 2022
    ISBN9781982155209
    Author

    Samantha M. Bailey

    Samantha M. Bailey is the author of Woman on the Edge, a USA TODAY and #1 national bestseller; her second novel, Watch Out for Her, was an instant #1 national bestseller. Her books have sold in eleven countries to date. Samantha is a journalist and freelance editor; her writing has appeared in NOW Magazine, The Village Post, The Thrill Begins, and The Crime Hub, among other publications. She lives in Toronto, where she can usually be found tapping away at her computer or curled up on her couch with a book. Connect with her on Twitter and Instagram @SBaileyBooks and on her website at SamanthaMBailey.com.

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    Reviews for Watch Out for Her

    3.5/5

    24 ratings7 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Creepy story about a family and their babysitter. Sarah and Daniel live in an upscale home and are happy raising their son, Jacob. Daniel believes Sarah, a photographer, needs a sitter to watch Jacob so she can concentrate on her work. Holly is a first year med school student and she fits the bill to watch Jacob. Holly becomes very involved in their lives, but she also snoops through their possessions. Sarah also has secrets, and has been photographing Holly and watching her on nanny cams without Holly's knowledge. Meanwhile, Holly's home life is not good. Her father and stepmother expect a lot from her, and her stepsister, Alexis, is always watching over her to make sure she is behaving. When the family move away after a confrontation with Holly, their new home becomes a nightmare, with someone spying on them. I liked the book up until the last chapter. I felt the author tried to explain everything and be so nice about all the things that happened. It would have been better without all the "understanding".
    • 4/5
      If you are looking for a psychological thriller that will give you the shivers, Watch Out for Her by Samantha M. Bailey will surely fit the bill. Sarah lives with her six-year-old son, Jacob and her husband, Daniel. In order to free up some time in Sarah’s busy life, Holly, a twenty-two-year-old, is hired to look after Jacob. Before long, a suspicious Sarah is casting a suspecting eye on the baby-sitter. A series of events will occur, upsetting the family so much that they will re-settle in another city, far away. But moving does not seem to solve their problems and strange occurrences are still happening around the young family. The characters in this book are well-developed and deliciously flawed and will fascinate readers. The plot has tension upon tension. Every turn of the page will bring more surprise, shock and, at times, terror. Watch Out for Her is a superior thriller that keeps intrigue and lies flowing and the ending is shocking. I look forward to reading more novels by Samantha M. Bailey. Thank you to Simon & Schuster, NetGalley and the author for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.
    • 3/5
      I didn't love this book and I didn't hate - it was a decent enough psychological thriller. It was a little bit slow and I think I struggled because I didn't particularly like Sarah or Holly. Both of them seemed a little crazy. Thanks to NetGalley for the digital ARC.
    • 5/5
      #FirstLine ~ I watch people.Wow, I loved this book. It was everything I hoped it would be and more. I loved the pacing, the characters and the dialogue. It was such an intense read, which I gobbled up. I loved how original is was. I had a hard time putting it down because I was gripped from that brilliant first line to the very last page!!!
    • 3/5
      Watch Out For Her is Samantha M. Bailey's second novel. Sarah and her husband Daniel decide to take on Holly as a summer babysitter for their young son Jacob. Holly is the daughter of one of Daniel's colleagues. And it's good in the beginning - until it's not. Sarah and her family end up packing up and moving from Vancouver to Toronto to put distance between themselves and Holly. So, what happened? Bailey tells her story from a now and then narrative, alternating between Sarah's and Holly's point of view. I didn't like Holly at all, despite what's going on with her. I initially liked Sarah in the beginning, but changed my mind fairly early on in the book. There are a number of supporting players in both locales, providing lots of options for suspicious behavior. As I read Watch Out For Her, I started to note some plot points with a 'really?' There were just too many coincidences, unrealistic behaviors and too many threads that were simply unbelievable for me. The whodunit is fairly obvious and easy to suss out. Much of the plot is cliched and the overall effect was too much. Less can sometimes work better than so many disparate and farfetched threads. I'm in the minority on this one.
    • 4/5
      Combine a lonely housewife with low self-esteem and a troubled young adult with a longing for a family and what do you get? In this story, it is not a good combination.When Sarah hires Holly as a babysitter, it seems like a dream come true. Holly is good with her son and he takes to her right away. Holly’s parents are acquaintances of Sarah and her husband, but unfortunately they don’t know each other very well.When Holly is disowned by her parents, Sarah wants to call them, but does not feel comfortable enough to do so. She lets Holly stay in their guest room with the understanding it will only be for the summer.However, Holly has other plans. As she unearths their family secrets and creates mistrust with Sarah, it soon becomes a volatile situation.While the suspicion is cast on Holly, there are other people that could be involved and Sarah and her husband are desperate to find out who is behind the cryptic messages and hidden cameras.Readers are in for a twisty ending. Some will anticipate it, some maybe not. This story definitely makes you think long and hard about who you let into your home.Many thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for allowing me to read an advance copy. I am happy to offer my honest review.
    • 2/5
      I almost didn’t finish this book because I didn’t like the mail character, Sarah Goldman. I thought she was insecure and paranoid. But I did because I wanted to know what her story was. Sarah and her husband Daniel, have a six year old son, Jacob. To help Sarah out since she seems to be so stressed and over protective of Jacob, they hire a sitter, Holly for the summer. Now Sarah can work her passion which is photography. Holly comes from a wealthy family and doesn’t want to follow her father’s plans for her. She wants a new family and the Goldman’s are just want she wants. But Holly, has secrets, as does Daniel, so is Sarah really paranoid?Then the family moves from Vancouver to Toronto to get a fresh start and now Sarah believes Holly is stalking them. There are a lot of tense moments, which kept me reading. Did I come to like Sarah at the end? No. Did I like all the paranoia and red herrings? Maybe a little. Overall. This was an unsatisfying thriller for me.

    Book preview

    Watch Out for Her - Samantha M. Bailey

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