The idea that someone could move into your house while you are away is both terrifying , and a great idea for a book!

I was gripped throughout, and the characters are all so unreliable that I didn’t know who to believe for much of the book. It’s clear very early on that Kimber is hiding something major from her past, which has resulted in this. There are many twists and turns as she tries to find out who the person living in her house is and just how far he will go.

A great, tense psychological thriller that kept me enthralled.

Kimber gets home from a weekend away to find the locks on her house have been changed and a strange man is living there. After calling the police it seems he has a six month lease signed by Kimber so the police aren’t interested. Not knowing what she can do Kimber calls her ex boyfriend who happens to be a lawyer. This turns out to be just the start of strange events happening in Kimber’s life. What is going on and who is trying to ruin her life. Kimber sets out to try and work out who has it in for her and how can she get her life back. A psychological thriller with lots of turns along the way.

Thanks to Net Galley and Hodder and Stoughton for an ARC of this book in exchange for a review.
This book grips the reader straight away, Kimber has just arrived home from a weekend away but alas her key doesn’t fit, has she got the wrong key, she tries them all but no luck, she’s also certain she has seen at figure at an upstairs window. How strange. Who is in her house and what are they doing there? Crap, she’s going to have to call the police!
The story unfolds, Kimber has secrets from her past and the man in her house has let her know that he knows her secrets, Kimber is not the only one in her family who has been harbouring secrets, as she digs in to the past she discovers her dad, who left her the house in his will, had lived a double life, with two families. The stranger in her house is her fathers son
kimber’s ex boyfriend Gabriel is a lawyer and is trying to help her get her home back but she begins to suspect that he knows more than he is tellling her. This book has a lot of twist and turns, it is told in the past and present and reads well, it’s my first book by this author, a good read and well deserving of 4 stars.

Who can you trust? What a brilliant psyological thilling book to read, the characters are brilliantly written and you get drawn into it , was not expecting the end to be the way it was!

A dark and twisty thriller, full of secrets and jealousy. There are some similarities to other books in this genre but this is certainly one of the better ones and I would recommend it.

It all begins with Michelle Hannon lying at the bottom of a hillside, where she came to her death. Years later her sister, Kimber, returns from a trip to find the locks on her house have been changed and there is a stranger man living in her house. He is adamant that Kimber rented the house to her and even has a signed lease but Kimber doesn’t remember signing anything. Who is telling the truth ?

What follows is a twisty, tense story that will keep you hooked to the very last page. Who is telling the truth ? And who can Kimber trust ? There are plenty of secrets in the past that are gradually revealed, just to add to the suspense, they will have you trying to work everything out but will you get it right ?

Thank you to Hodder and Stoughton and NetGalley for a digital copy of this book.

How would you feel if you went away for the weekend and came back and found a stranger living in your house? Well this is exactly what happens to Kimber in this story and although she thinks at first she doesn’t know the man who has moved himself into her house, it turns out he may not be such a stranger after all.

At first I felt really frustrated for Kimber. The poor woman comes home, finds someone living in her house and the police don’t seem to want to do anything to help her and instead make things incredibly difficult for her. However, Kimber’s got more than a few skeletons in her closet and I soon found my empathy for her draining away as I learnt about her past indiscretions. She’s a difficult character to like and at times I almost felt like she was just getting what she deserved. She’s definitely a character I loved to hate.

The story gets right down to it from the first chapters and the pace doesn’t let up much the whole way through. Because of Kimber’s nature and the various people she has crossed paths with in her life, there’s quite a few people in the mix who could potentially want to see her harmed. Despite all these possibilities I still couldn’t pin down who or why someone would want to mess with her life in the ways they do.

This is one of those reads that although the main character isn’t particularly likeable you will still want to read to the end to find out the how’s and why’s. This was a good psychological thriller with a satisfying ending and a few twists and turns along the way.

I found this book to be quite a compulsive read .... the main character, Kimber, returns home from a trip to find the locks have been changed on her house and she can't get in and there is nothing she can do about it. The more we find out about Kimber the less we should like about her and yet I find sympathy for her. The format moves between the present and Kimber's childhood and eventually we begin to learn why Kimber is finding her life crumble around her. A good plot that unfolds at a good pace with some quite frightening sections that had me on the edge of my seat.
Many thanks to Netgalley/Laura Benedict/Hodder & Stoughton for a digital copy of this title. All opinions expressed are my own.

This really was a dark story driven by jealousy, hatred and greed.. Some really good characters and a fast paced story. There were some lighter parts and with the conclusion, most of the loose ends were tied off.

With thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the book in exchange for an honest review.
The Stranger Inside by Laura Benedict is a complicated, psychological thriller. It has many plots and twists to keep the reader guessing and engrossed in the story. The storyline is in part about two sisters, partly about their father and partly about human frailties and the mistakes we make in life.
It is a very clever book which sweeps the reader up into a world which is turned upside down and the main characters are people whom the reader realises are not very likeable.
Highly recommended.

Now most of those old trees were gone, long ago sacrificed to logging, and the rock was little wider than Michelle’s hunched and broken body was tall.”

The Stranger Inside by Laura Benedict is a great read. It’s not particularly fast paced, but there’s a lot going on in Kimber Hannon’s life. I didn’t find her to be the nicest of people but I felt that this is the point and this is a credit to Laura Benedict’s writing.

Kimber returns home from a long weekend at a retreat, to find that her keys do not work in her front door. She tries every key but nothing works, she then she sees the shadow of somebody inside.

She calls the police and is told the man has a rental lease for 6 months, signed by her, to say she is shocked is an understatement.

Who is this man and how did he get keys to her home and then during a slight altercation, he whispers in her ear " I was there, I know what you did", she panics, what does he know about her past and what happened, as she believes she was the only one there!

This switches between two timelines, the past and the present, we learn of secrets and lies.

An intriguing read even if you don’t really care for Kimber, you’ll still need to know the secrets....

I would like to thank the Author/the Publishers/NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book for free in exchange for a fair and honest review

This is an intriguing book and one that made me feel so sorry for Kimber when she finds a stranger in her home.
It’s hard to imagine what you would do - she returned home from a few days away and her key no longer works. She sees a shadow at the window so calls the Police and when the man does eventually answer the door he says he’s renting the house for six months!
He’s even got the neighbour on side...
Kimber calls her lawyer and together with him and some other friends they work out what’s really happening, however, things take a much darker turn.
Kimber’s life is crumbling around her and she just wants her home back but someone is doing all they can to wreck her life.
This is a gripping read that had me racing through the pages to try and find out who was behind this, and why.
Thanks to Hodder & Staughton/Mulholland Books for the opportunity to read this book.

When a book begins with a nightmare home-from-holiday scenario you would hate to happen to you, one that piques your interest right from the start, the hope is that it continues to deliver the punches as you read on. And this novel does, in spades.

The Stranger Within has a compelling blurb and theme, and a diverting plot with lots of twists and turns, as it switches between timelines. But what was less riveting for me was the main character, Kimber. She was pretty hard to like, never mind love and cheer on as I wanted to.

However, it’s her very vulnerability and flaws that make her believable even if she’s not like anyone I know. And as the story unfolds, she seems to be housing a stranger inside her messy, but seemingly competent, adult self. It’s a frightened teenager who’s convinced she has committed a murder, no less. Her terrified younger self.

Kimber’s past is littered affairs and bad choices, some of which come back to bite her. And the stranger inside her house? He turns out to be far more closely linked to her than she could have imagined. And he’s also a threat to her future happiness. After a bumpy ride the finale was unexpected and satisfying. A compelling psychological thriller with less than savoury characters.

This story starts off with a past tragic event and then switches to the present day, where Kimber returns home from a weekend away to find her locks have been changed and someone is in her house. It seems her past has returned to haunt her. Whilst there are many suspenseful scenes and some mind games, this doesn’t have the impact and underlying menace of a true psychological thriller.

It does have an unreliable protagonist, who is so flawed it’s difficult to find her redeeming features. As the story progresses and her secrets are revealed, her motivations are clearer and you realise she hates herself, and all her subsequent actions stem from this.

As a family drama, this is cleverly crafted with dysfunctional relationships, guilt and secrets everywhere, but despite the comparisons, this isn’t like ‘The Girl Before’ or ‘ You Let Me In’. They are menacing to read. This is suspenseful and tangled, but not as difficult to unravel.

If you are looking for a suspenseful read with layers of family and friendship drama, this is worth reading.

The Stranger Inside is a chilling thriller that started off soooooo well, lost it around a third of the way and found itself again for the last third.
Kimber has been away on a four day retreat to find her key doesn’t fit the lock to her front door, neither does her back door key fit. She sees movement in her house and doesn’t understand what’s happening. She phones the police and when the person who is in her house claims she set up the rental agreement with him for six months there is nothing the police can do. She calls her lawyer who is her ex boyfriend so is very awkward especially as into the book you find out why they split up. We follow kimber as she tries to find out who this person is in her house and why they are picking on her.
This set off with so much promise but because at times there was a lot of stupid things happening it made my attention sway away from the book but the ending is good and all the twists which are revealed at the end are well worth getting to.
I would like to thank Netgalley and Hodder and Staughton - Mulholland Books for this ARC I received in exchange for an honest review.

Sorry I could not get into this book at all. I really liked the idea of it but I could not connect with any of the characters and found it a chore to read.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

When living a lie and keeping secrets come back to haunt you.
Kimber's life goes from good to disastrous in a couple of days.
Good read.

I read The Stranger Inside in a couple of days and have to say I was quite disappointed with it. Whilst the premise was good, I just felt the whole book lacked pace and excitement. Sorry but this book wasn’t for me.

Thank you to NetGalley, Hodder and Stoughton and the author for the chance to review.

What would you do if you came home from a vacation to discover the locks to your home have been changed, and a strange man was living there? This is the situation Kimber is confronted with, to make matters worse the police don't seem to believe her when she says she did not let this man rent her home. Things take a sinister turn when she attempts to get into her home and the man whispers in her ear "I know what you did"
What follows is a bit of a cat and mouse game, delving into Kimbers not so pleasant past.
The story was interesting and I did enjoy the book, however the majority of the characters were extremely unlikable. That said the story kept me intrigued and I would recommend.

‘The Stranger Inside,’ by Laura Benedict is a slightly unusual read for me but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Kimber Hannon returns home from a few days away to find that a man has moved into her house. He shows the police a lease, which appears to have been signed by Kimber and then mutters something in her ear, ‘I saw what you did’.

Kimber isn't a particularly nice character and the reader follows what has happened in her recent and not so recent past and the complicated family upbringing, which nets all the different aspects together.

As the story unravels we get introduced to a full range of different characters and there are times when I despair at Kimber’s attitude but others where she makes me laugh out loud.

Thank you to NetGally, Hodder & Stoughton, Mulholland Books and Laura Benedict for my ARC in return for my honest review.

Well worth the read, recommended.