We are all still staying at home because of the corona virus, so there is always some extra time to read a book. Today is my stop of C.L. Taylor’s blog tour for her latest book Strangers. Today I have an exclusive opportunity to share my review with you. Many thanks to lovely Sanjana and the amazing team at Avon Books for the chance to be part of this blog tour.

Don’t forget to visit all the other stops of this amazing blog tour! Enjoy!

Three strangers. Three people who have never met before.

Ursula is moving from one place to another. She is shoplifting on regular basis. She can’t help herself.

Gareth is living with his mother who is suffering from dementia. Suddenly, his mother starts receiving postcards from his father. But, his father is missing for many years.

Alice is trying to fix her love life. Her latest date didn’t go well. But, suddenly, she starts receiving threats. Who is stalking her and why?

Three different people who have nothing in common. But the destiny sets them up in one place at the same time. And they have to stick together of some of them will die!

C.L.Taylor has set up one very interesting plot this time! Three separate people living their everyday lives unaware they are all going to meet in a such a dramatic way. Tension starts from the very first page and you have no idea what is going on. Then you have no tension at all and then the tension slowly builds up again and I really didn’t know how this amazing book would end! There were moments when I thought that this was drama, not a thriller. But the author slowly introduces each one of the characters and page after page reveals their true selves. She built one very interesting plot that kept my nose in the book till the very last page. I loved it!

My actual rating: 4,5.

My first C.L. Taylor book. This book kept my interest from page one and I will be reading some of her other novels. Three strangers who seem to have no connection and I had no idea where the story line was heading. It is fast paced and kept me in suspense.

WoW!!!!!! Strangers by C.L. Taylor was just a fantastic book. I was hooked within the very first few pages and I just loved it. Its full of big twists and turns throughout with a WoW ending.

If I could give this new book by C.L Taylor I would. I highly recommend this book.

Big Thank you to Avon Books UK and NetGalley for my advanced copy of this book to read. All opinions are my own and are in no way biased

Thank you NetGalley and Publisher for this early copy!

Did not finish - I could not connect with the plot or writing so I decided to put it down.

I throughly enjoyed this book, it had everything.
I was waiting for how the ‘strangers’ would come together at the end but didn’t spot during my read that the theme was loneliness, very cleverly written.
I’ve read a lot of CL Taylor’s books and enjoyed them but this was my favourite by far.
It was chilling at times and had my pulse racing. I must admit I did prejudged all of the characters at the beginning and shows by the end why you shouldn’t.
Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity of reading this and I would highly recommend it to friends and fellow readers.

This is the easiest and quickest 5 star review I can give.  Strangers is EXACTLY what I needed in the midst of this strange new world and stuck in Lockdown and I definitely recommend it to any reader who enjoys quirky characters, twisty plots and a gripping storyline.

The story centres around 3 strangers; Ursula - a kleptomaniac with a heartbreaking past; Alice - a newly divorced middle aged woman looking for love and Gareth - a dedicated son and proud security guard.  These 3 strangers don't know each other but a random chain of events brings them together and turns their worlds upside down.

Normally when I read a book with multiple characters who each narrate their own story I often find myself preferring one particular voice, however in Strangers I absolutely adored all 3 of the main characters which meant triple the enjoyment for me.

Honestly, there's not much else I can say except I loved Strangers, I loved the characters, the book kept me gripped and allowed me to escape this strange reality.  5 huge stars from me.

I was sent a copy of this book by NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.
5 stars
I was a little worried that I wouldn't like this book but I was hooked from the first page. I enjoyed each perspective & trying to figure out each mystery & trying to figure out how all of the characters would come together. I didn't want to put it down when I started. The characters are written very well & definitely have some growth & the plot is drawn out & done very well considering there are three perspectives & in each perspective a small mystery that eventually brings the three main characters together. I recommend this book to anyone looking for a fast paced, easy to read, connect the dots type of thriller. There are some good twists in this book especially at the end.

I really wasn’t sure what this book was going to be about as I often read a book because of the author, I don’t read the blurb as I like going into it without expectations of what the story might be.

This normally works well and it certainly did with this book as I thoroughly enjoyed it from the start and loved seeing how the different characters came together. The story was full of twists and surprises and it was great trying to work out what was really going on and who was not who they said they were.

As always the author gives us varied characters who feel real, they have troubles and flaws and generally they act in very believable ways. I really don’t want to give the story away to you as I genuinely think that it would be better for the reader to know as little as possible about the story.

You can be sure that you will get a thrilling read that will keep you guessing when you read a book by C.L. Taylor and this book did not disappoint.

This was a fantastic, addictive read which I think is her best book yet. It’s going to be hard to review this book as I really don’t want to give anything away.

Firstly I thought this book was brilliantly plotted with some fantastic characters who were great fun to get to know. It was very interesting to learn more about them and see how they all fit together, especially as it wasn’t obviously to start with. Their connection to each other is slowly revealed with the author dropping little hints about what it might be and I loved trying to piece everything together.

I found this a very fast paced and compelling read which was hard to put down as I soon felt very involved in the characters lives. The change in point of view helped keep me reading as there was always something happening to keep my interest. I felt this also made it feel like two different types of stories at times especially in regards to Alice and Gareth as Alice’s seemed more of romantic story while Gareth’s seemed much darker somehow.

Overall I really enjoyed this book which offered welcome distraction during this difficult time and helped get my reading mojo back. I can’t wait to read more from her in the future.

Huge thanks to Sanjana from Avon for inviting me onto the blog tour and for my copy of this book via Netgalley.

Strangers opens with a dead body and three shocked people but who the victim is and why Alice, Ursula and Gareth were present or what role they played in his death isn't revealed at this point. What is evident, however, is that some sort of violent confrontation occurred here and with such a gripping beginning, I couldn't fail to be immediately hooked by C.L.Taylor's latest thriller.
The narrative switches between Alice, Ursula and Gareth's stories, gradually and tantalisingly dropping hints about what brings them to the point where we meet them at the start of the novel. What does become obvious more quickly is that although the three don't know one another, they are all people struggling in their own ways with loneliness and their need to form meaningful connections with somebody.
Alice's controlling husband left her for another woman and she has decided the time is right to look for a new relationship and to become more assertive. Her first date with a man she met online doesn't go well and ends with a disturbing scene which will be sadly familiar to many women who have encountered men that assume buying somebody a drink means they're entitled to something. Things begin to look up for her after this but is her new man all he seems? When Alice starts receiving threatening messages, she has to decide who she can trust. Her dilemma is understandable; she is desperate to move on from her marriage and wants to prove to herself that she won't be bullied by anybody else but the seeds of doubt that are cast ensured I was as confused as she is as to what the truth could really be.
Gareth is a security officer in a mall in Bristol where Alice manages a clothes shop, so it's not surprising that their paths should cross occasionally. His story is really quite poignant - he is a middle-aged man still living at home with his mother who has dementia and though he loves her dearly, it is sadly unavoidable that her condition means he is trapped. When strange postcards start arriving at his house, he begins to hope that they may bring news of a figure from his past but the emotional toll brings further turmoil to both his personal and professional life.
Ursula sometimes visits Alice's shop but she isn't a welcome customer - and it soon transpires isn't wanted as a flatmate either. I think of all the characters, I found her story to perhaps be the most intriguing; her actions strongly indicate that she is a damaged soul but it's only as the novel progresses that we learn more about the reason behind her self-destructive behaviour. It's notable that despite their personal issues, all three characters are caring individuals who try to help others but knowing that something terrible is going to happen suggests that somebody in at least one of their lives can't be trusted.
It's this which makes Strangers so compelling - I knew something awful is going to happen and I knew that somehow Alice, Ursula and Gareth are involved but what kept me guessing and guaranteed I couldn't put the book down were the clever red herrings and teasing hints about the terrifying situation they will soon find themselves in. There are a few characters who are decidedly dodgy one way or another and I was quite prepared to believe that any of them were capable of being dangerously violent. As the sense of apprehension grows, the three storylines eventually combine in a way which doesn't feel contrived at all - it makes perfect sense why these strangers ultimately find themselves together.
Engrossing, tense and actually really quite heart-warming, Strangers is a fast-paced and exciting read, with a conclusion which underlines C.L. Taylor's gift for understanding the humanity of her characters. Highly recommended.

Strangers was so good! It had twists I didn't see coming and it was not really predictable, which is rare for thrillers now-a-days. I couldn't put it down! If you are looking for a fast-paced thriller, look no further!

The story is told by several characters. All of them are not connected in anyway and their stories are different and disparate. I continued for almost sixty percent of the book or even more before I could see anyway that they were going to be drawn together.

That was the key point of interest for me. When was it all going to be drawn together because without it, you knew there was no story. Alice, Gareth, Ursula were the three protagonists each of them battling various issues Alice and being alone, Gareth and again he being alone and with a mother with severe dementia and Ursula never gotten over the loss of her love, insecure but brash and trying to keep it together.

The stories were long and complicated but not boring. Each of them were realistic enough that one could see parallels in people around us and it is only when it is put together that one realizes that all you need is one person off kilter to set normal lives haywire.

This was a good story (ies) all put together very nicely.

This book was so easy to read I devoured it, the characters are engaging and likeable in the main.

The story is not the typical psychological thriller in that there seem to be plots and subplots which are vaguely linked by people’s proximity to each other. In this respect it is very interesting to see how people’s lives can intersect and influence each other’s.

The book was not gripping in the way I would expect of a thriller but it was easy to read and certainly kept me turning the pages.

i found the ending strange, Larry had only had a very small bit part but then ended the book!

It was interesting to read one of the questions at the back of the book which said that the book’s main theme was loneliness. Had I been asked I do not think I would have listed this as a theme but I can see that each character was dealing to some extent or other with loneliness and isolation, often forced upon them.

It was a great book and I really enjoyed the characters.

I am a big fan of C L Taylor. I have read all of her previous novels and I was really looking forward to this one. Unfortunately, it was a bit of a letdown. It wasn’t full of the usual twists and turns we have come to expect from this author. It kept me interested enough to finish it and find out what the connection was between the strangers but the whole thing left me with a ‘meh’ feeling. Not one I would recommend.

Strangers is the most unpredictable thriller I’ve read in a long time. An irresistibly dark thriller that was full of clever suspense and fascinating characters.

***Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review***

Couldn't really get into it. The characters didn't immediately grab me.

One of my favourite authors and this is another bestseller on the shelves. good characters that you really felt you knew. The tension builds up in places and I really loved about what was in the cellar! I thought it was so well written the way all the lives eventually joined up as you would not think so at the beginning. Great read for holiday this year as it will keep you gripped.

Firstly let me start by saying how much i adore C.L Taylor and i have loved every single book i have read by her. I was so excited for Strangers pre release and then i attended alot of online book festivals where Cally was attending and hosting. The constant chatter around this book had me obsessed before i had even read the first page and well.



Ursula, Gareth and Alice have never met. They are all completely different people. Ursula is struggling to get a handle on her life, she thinks she killed her one true love, had a breakdown and is now battling through each day with a mediocre life. Gareth is a security guard who is looking after his poorly mum when strange postcards start appearing at his home. Whilst Alice who has just started the dating scene once more is been stalked after a disastrous first date.



We start the book as they are gathered around a dead body (this isnt a spoiler it is literally the beginning of the book) We then travel back to follow the three as their paths eventually cross. As they are going to have to learn to trust others and this is something all three characters lack. These are some of my all time favourite characters. They are such a mismatch of a bunch but they are fantastic.



Ursula is by far my favourite. She is deeply flawed, she at first glance is not the most likeable character but as i got to discover her, i warmed to her and she was just wonderful. She has been dealing with so much guilt and trauma and is carrying that around with her every minute of the day and it has had so much impact on her life. Gareth is a good man at heart, but as a character is lost. He is still struggling to deal with the fact his dad vanished and now his mum is struggling with dementia and it makes working for Gareth harder. Not only that - when strange postcards arrive, he takes his eye of the ball at work and that could have major impacts on his job. Alice is new to the dating scene with the help of her daughter who wants her to no longer be lonely. Yet when she attends her first date it ends horrifically and she feels only to be followed by a slightly better man. Someone however doesnt like that and before long Alice is being stalked.



Cally has done a wonderful job creating characters that have so much depth to them with flaws. The narrative itself is so gripping, i found myself settling in for hours to crack on with the reading. I liked following it from each characters point of view as we were lead to the conclusion. It was tense and thrilling as well as been so cleverly crafted to get back to the opening. I honestly didn't see it coming but i spent time with my heart pacing as i turned each page. Well, the conclusion just blew me (and my stress levels) out of the water.



I think by far this is my favourite read of hers, it has taken me a few days to try and get my thoughts down on this and the characters even turned up in my dreams...well Gareth did (he was in a murderous debate with his neighbour Jerry? hah!) I can honestly say every single bit of hype surrounding this book is deserved. A wonderful wonderful read.



I was gifted an e-arc to review but this has not biased my review, if you are interested in this you can pick it up on amazon

A new C.L. Taylor book is always cause for celebration for me. I’ve never been disappointed. However, I think Strangers is quite possibly my favourite so far.

It’s set around three characters: Alice, Gareth and Ursula. Alice is a divorced clothes shop manager and lives with her daughter, Emily, who encourages her to try dating again. However, events take a rather unusual turn when she meets up with a man. Gareth is a security guard at The Meads shopping centre. He lives with his mum who has dementia and doesn’t have much of a life outside of his work and his home commitments. And Ursula is kind of adrift in her life after a terrible thing happened. Shoplifting makes her feel better somehow.

It’s a testament to how good a writer Taylor is that she’s taken three people with only the most tenuous of connections and written three individual stories about them which, for much of the book, don’t cross over that much. And yet at the end of each character’s chapter I didn’t want to leave them behind, so engrossed was I in what was happening to them. It’s particularly interesting when you consider how many strangers you come across in your day to day life and how random it all is.

I honestly didn’t know how those three separate strands were going to come together and when they did it was a surprise. It was like being a fly on the wall of all of the lives contained within the pages, watching them as they go about their day to day business, dealing with all that life throws at them. Maybe it’s my innate nosiness about what’s going on behind closed doors that made this book so appealing.

I love the clever plotting that must have gone into this novel. It’s a fast paced and exciting read with characters that I was thrilled by. I could have gone on reading about them but I realise the author needed to wind it up somewhere! Strangers is an absolutely brilliant read in every way and I loved it!

This is book is, for me, interesting thought provoking, and thrilling. I enjoyed it very much. Gareth, Ursula and Alice were exciting to meet and read along with what would happen next. I was on the edge of my seat and wanted this book to keep going. I would read more from this author! *This book was given to me for free at my request from NetGalley and I provided this voluntary review.*