Thank you to John Rector, Thomas & Mercer, and NetGalley for the advanced reader copy of The Ridge in exchange for an unbiased review.

This is the sort of genre I eat up in a day. I read this book in less than 24 hours time, mainly because I wanted to know what was going on in the The Ridge's spooky neighborhood. Megan, the lead character, and her husband, Tyler, move into a planned community far from the bustling city of Chicago that Megan adores. To avoid spoiling the plot, a bizarre encounter with a neighbor leaves Megan questioning her own sanity and wondering if there is something a bit "off" about the people living in The Ridge.

Megan tells Tyler about the encounter, and, rather than trusting his wife's instincts, quickly dismisses her. Lacking Tyler's trust and support, Megan feels alone and isolated in the picture perfect world of suburbia. She makes two friends in whom she can confide, and soon finds that perhaps what happened between her and her neighborhood might be indicative of something insidious taking place in The Ridge.

I won't say that a lot of the ideas or concepts in The Ridge are new or innovative, but John Rector is a good storyteller. You will not be disappointed in the book if you like thrillers. If anything, you may spend the whole night reading it to find out what is really going on in The Ridge!

B.L.O.O.D.Y. H.E.L.L. This book is a-ma-zing! It grabbed me from the first page and I could barely put it down. Even when I wasn't reading it, I was thinking about it.

The story is thrilling, compelling and pretty terrifying. It is really well written; the characters' thoughts, feelings and situations are clearly described and each one is fully rounded and believable. I can't wait to see what Liz Lawler does next!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Bonnier Zaffre for the ARC of Don't Wake Up.

Unlike any other book I've read this year.
Darkly twisted and well paced with intriguing characters this book drags you along at breakneck speed.
Very nearly 5*, would have preferred a tidier conclusion as doesn't appear to be the start of a series.

This was a fast read for me, in many ways your typical psychological thriller but it was superbly menacing and I give it extra points for being quite unpredictable - not necessarily on the "whodunnit" level, although Liz Lawler does a great job of obfuscating things - but more because it didn't feel at all like things would necessarily work out for our main protagonist. Did all come good in the end? Well you'll have to read to find out.

It has that addictive quality that I look for in this genre, certainly a page turner, also intensely creepy at times. Imagine you are assaulted but nobody believes you. Imagine then that at every turn you are looking more and more unbalanced but you know that you are not. That is an intriguing layer to Don't Wake Up, I also give points for the fact that the characters mostly behaved reasonably given the circumstances. If I had one bugbear it was one police officer character that was way too caricature but I won't say more because everyone reads differently

Overall Don't Wake Up is a great read, especially as a book to sit down with when you just need to read totally in the comfort zone - I have no problem recommending it to fans of this genre, whilst it may not offer anything unique, it is accomplished writing and a banging good story.

After a long day and terribly sad at the hospital where she works, Alex Taylor is anticipating a special date with her boyfriend, but she never makes it past the parking lot, or does she? The next thing Alex knows, she’s waking up in an operating room where she’s been restrained and placed in a very uncomfortable position. The “doctor” that enters the room threatens to do some terrible things to her and then administers a strong sedative. The nest time Alex opens her eyes, she in her own hospital, surrounded by her work friends who tell her she was found unconscious in the parking lot. It looks like she was struck in the head by a fallen branch. But Alex remembers every detail of her terrifying ordeal, and insists she was sexually assaulted…and worse. The examination she’s given shows no sign of the trauma she remembers and no one seems to believe her. They think shes’s hallucinating after hitting her head. What the hell really happened, and is it going to happen again? The single most terrifying opening to any book I have ever read