Thank you to Netgalley and Bookouture for the opportunity to read this for my honest opinion. I’ve heard great things about this author. This was my first KL Slater book and I hate to say I am slightly disappointed. I went in a little blind and had high hopes. I felt as though the book was a little slow until about 70% of the way through. It was a little bit all over the place and I felt as though some characters weren’t talked about enough and it really focused a lot on the main narrator’s past experiences. I wish there was more to this story and the buildup didn’t take that long because the end was pretty good.

Oh my! I couldn't put this book down. It was both creepy and delightful in turns. It's a superbly written, engaging story of an unlikely heroine that captures your attention and your empathy. The tale was artfully constructed around Freya, a recent widow and her 5 year old daughter. They are unwitting guests in a house of deceit. The plot line moves swiftly along while keeping you guessing. The characters have depth and are delightfully credible. I thoroughly enjoyed this tale.

When you've hit rock bottom, do you really have a choice to trust a helping hand?

This is the decision Freya faces after her husband leaves her for her friend and then dies, leaving her alone with their five-year-old daughter. Cue the plot. Dr. Marsden just happens to be at the same place at the same time with an apartment to rent just when Freya is seeking one. How coincidental. And, like a blond chick in a horror movie, she pushes caution aside and jumps in head first, or runs up the stairs instead of outside... aka Freya moves into the apartment.

Like all good thrillers, she ignores all of the red flags and feelings in her gut because she just has to believe the best in folks. To find out what Dr. Marsden is up to though, you'll have to read the book!

In the beginning, there are a few chapters that seem quite out of place and I wasn't a fan of them, but it all tied in at the end... Speaking of the end, the whole horror movie plot returned and I wasn't as shocked as I'd have liked.

Overall, worth your time as the writing style is easy and the characters are lovable. I enjoy characters like Freya!

*3 1/2 Stars*

"The new person has to be just right. Has to fit in perfectly with the other five residents already living at Adder House."

Too good to be true? Definitely. But Freya feels out of options. After the death of her estranged husband, she has to find somewhere to live with her 5 year old daughter, Skye. This is an opportunity she just can't turn away.

As time goes on, Freya begins to realize just how much things are off at her new apartment. Deceptions, half truths and so much not making sense.

I truly enjoyed the story. I would read more from this author.

After finishing a somewhat slow historical fiction book, I needed something with a bit (or a bunch) more tension. I chose well. The story follows Freya Miller and her daughter Skye as they are trying to move on with their lives after the death of Lewis, Skye’s father and Freya’s estranged husband. They need to find a new place to live and like a dream come true, a generous offer finds Freya and it sounds too good to be true. They can live at a wonderful address and within their budget, but things start to get weird and Freya begins to question her own sanity. What will happen next?

It was just the story that I needed to reboot my reading streak. It’s a thriller for sure and such a quick read. I couldn’t put it down. I recommend it and lucky for you, it comes out on April 28, 2020. I like stories where the suspense builds and this one builds to a frenetic finale.

This was a really quick read for me. The book read easily but it just didn’t work that well for me.

Freya is a widowed mother of a five year old named Skye. She is looking for a affordable place to live after she sold her house. Dr. Mars den knows all about Freya and Skye and offers her the apartment for barely anything. It’s a beautiful house and neighborhood with a great school. She moves in and finds all the residents seem a bit odd and weird things start happening in the apartment.

You get little bits of information about her cheating dead husband and the foster care system she was brought up in. You get the feeling that someone is gaslighting her. I just felt that things weren’t fleshed out enough. I wanted to know about her background and her husbands accident.

The end came abruptly and I felt it didn’t really answer the questions I had. I gave this a three star rating. Not bad but could have been better. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me the book in exchange for an honest opinion.

Freya and her daughter Skye need to move soon because she has sold her house after her husband left her for her friend and then passed away. She is getting close to panic because she has no where to go that she can afford. All that changes when she is in a coffee shop and looking at the board for apartments to rent. A man approaches with a flyer for an apartment and strikes up a conversation with her. Before Freya knows it, she has agreed to move in with an affordable rent in an exclusive part of London. She can't believe her luck!

This book was a quick read. You have to know what is going on in this building with the creepy residents. It kind of has a feel of Rosemary's Baby but with a different plot.

I enjoyed this book and thank Netgalley and the publishers for allowing me to read and review this book.

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me a chance to review an advanced copy. This is my first review and I am so excited.

The Apartment by K L Slater was a book I had a hard time putting down. I wanted to know what the heck was going on. I had a pretty good idea due to the “flashback” parts.

I liked the main character, Freya but felt she was a bit too trusting to move into the apartment when you learn that she was a foster kid and distrusting of people. It wasn’t that believable that she would just move into an apartment like that. If it seems to good to be true, then it is.

Skye the daughter was a precocious 5 year old. I liked her interactions with her mom.

The story is based upon a newly single mom who is strapped for cash moving into an apartment that she could never afford. There are strange things happening, noises and such. She feels like she is going crazy. Gaslighting at its finest.

The ending fell a bit flat in my opinion. There was a pretty good buildup, but there could have been some more detail regarding Lily, and Audrey and Dr. Marsden and the other tenants. I feel like some things were left out.

I think the premise of the story was great, loved the setting but felt there were some things missing to make the story even more of a “wow”.

I really appreciate chance to read and review this story.

If you’re a psychology buff like me or just love thrillers, you will LOVE this novel!! Kim is an absolute genius at writing twisty stories that make you go huh!

A huge thanks to Ms Slater, Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley for allowing me early access to this really good and dark read. This tale comes out in just 2 days, so grab it and let me know your thoughts!

Ever heard of Dr Watson, Little Albert or Pavlov’s experiment with dogs? Psychology is so full of tests and experiments that have forged how we think and feel and even do things. These experiments were really big ones in their days and they explained and showed different things relating to stimuli. Classical Conditioning.

How awesome and cool is it that K.L. Slater took these experiments and wrote a really dark and cool book about the things that go wrong or things that go bump in the night. Want a really nice and cheap apartment? Can you live with being an experiment test subject?

A definite must read! A one-two sitting type read. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

My first KL book. I loved the plot. If you like good suspense you definitely want to read The Apartment!

When something seems too good to be true it usually is. And so it is with Freya Miller and her precocious five year old daughter Skye when, during an apparently chance meeting with a Dr. Marsden, they are offered an opportunity (if they are the right people) to move into a posh apartment in Adder House with a rental price tag at a fraction of what it should be. A series of recent events require that she and her daughter relocate from their current apartment, so this is a most fortuitous encounter.

She and her daughter decide to visit and once inside they are both delighted with the charming top floor apartment being offered to them and in which Dr. Marsden assures them they will be the first tenants to reside. After moving in they meet a small group of residents, each with their own problems, eccentricities and psychological obsessions. As a recent widow/single mother, who is toting a load of emotional baggage herself, Freya should be a perfect fit.

THE APARTMENT by K.L. Slater is a modified haunted-house novel where there are no ghosts or rattling chains. Instead it offers the mildest of chills and minimum notes of darkness and madness in this cautionary tale of the perils of being a cash strapped renter who gets a deal on a new place far outside what she should reasonably expect to pay and later coming to regret it.

The evil put forth in this book is mildly creepy but a bit reserved when compared to the writing of authors like Ira Levin, Stephen King or Tom Tryon. 3 1/2 stars

Tragedy has left Freya and her daughter looking for somewhere to live when she gets the perfect offer. An apartment in a good area at the right price. What could possibly go wrong. Freya is about to discover she may have made a big mistake. Something dangerous lurks in Adder House.

What a creepy read this was. I read it in virtually one sitting as the story just hooked me in. This is quite short but it doesnt feel rushed. Its fast paced which fits with the story and doesnt leave me wanting the story to speed up. The plot is clever with some brilliant twists. I had figured out who was behind it before Freya did but I loved the explanation and all the connections. A dark and creepy but brilliant read.

When I heard about this book, its premise reminded me a great deal of Lock Every Door by Riley Sager; where I had not enjoyed the latter, I hoped I would enjoy this one!

I actually really liked the main character in this book, which was certainly not the case in Lock Every Door. Here, Freya is a mother who still has common sense and can tell when something is odd or too good to be true. She also has an interesting backstory that makes her relatable. I liked that the story flitted between Freya's past and present. Not only did it give the reader a better picture of her, it also allowed us to see who she used to be before she found herself needing an apartment. If anything, I wanted more of this. I also liked the inclusion of well-known psychological theories. As someone with a background in psychology, I'm always appreciative of tidbits from that field in a novel.

The Cons: What I didn't like
The author decided to mix up styles and use some journal entries to add a different perspective. While I liked some of them because they were told in 3rd person from a new character's perspective and referenced a famous psychological experiment, there were other entries that I hated because I REALLY don't like 2nd person narratives - especially when it isn't done well.
The relationships between all of the tenants was not really explained and that ruined the veracity of the reveal.
The actual reveal was just so hard to believe. Even though I knew the story was going in that direction and I pegged the instigator quite early on, I still think it was too far-fetched and under-developed.
The ending was definitely a let-down in that things were just so messily resolved and convenient. I don't know why authors tend to have all of this hype and build up just to end things on such an anticlimactic note. 

Overall, I think I liked this book better than Lock Every Door, at least in that the protagonist was a bit more aware in this novel that things were a bit strange. However, the blend of storytelling format wasn't very well executed and the ending itself was too contrived to be believable. For those reasons, I'm giving this a 2.5/5 stars.

Freya Miller and her daughter need a new place to stay. She can no longer afford to remain in their home, so when the opportunity falls in her lap to move to a beautiful apartment, at an unbelievable price, in a great area, she jumps at the chance. Will this move prove to be a good decision? When strange things start happening to Freya, she can’t quite explain it. Has she made a terrible decision? Will she and Skye be able to escape? This was a quick read that I really enjoyed!

The Apartment⭐️
Freya And her daughter are going to be the very first owners of a new apartment in a fancy, classy neighborhood. Freya is worried the neighbors will realize that they dont belong that they are not quite right but its so beautiful and it will be a great fresh start. But then things start being moved and letters are getting delivered and something really isnt right about this apartment.
It is a slow thriller but moves fast if that makes sense. We get 60% through the book with just a hint of whats to come. But i enjoyed seeing freya daughter transition to a new school and having those mundane moments made it more real. More like the drama could happen because it wasnt nonstop crazy. It was life but with a twist.


Thank you to Amazon Publishing Uk via netgalley for sending me a copy of the Apartment by K L Slater. Available on April 28 2020
All opinions are my own.

WOW!! Creepy as hell!
I absolutely loved this book. There were places in the book I could hear the creepy music from The Shining!

A "chanced" meeting in a Starbucks seems like an answer to Freya's problems. An apartment in a beautiful house called Adder House that she would never have been able to afford and hopefully a new start for her and her 5-year-old daughter Skye. (Well, the name of the house should have been a warning to her!)
Then unexplained things start happening. Is Freya imagining all these things or are there more sinister things at play.

Brilliant book and very well written. A very good twist at the end that you don't see coming.

Thank you to NetGalley and Amazon Publishing UK for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

This psychological thriller is a very fast, easy read. Set near Kensington Gardens in London in a gorgeous mansion named the Adder House, the setting is delightful, and the home in this book is almost its own character. The narrator in this novel is likeable, and not "too" unreliable, but just enough to keep the reader on his/her toes and not positive about what's really occurring. I will say the scene in the end of the book where the plot wraps up seems a bit rushed, especially given the slow build-up, however, I really appreciated the epilogue which tied up all of the loose ends. Would absolutely recommend this as a great travel/vacation read!

I was given a copy of this book by NetGalley in return for an honest review.

I devoured this book so quickly. It read so quickly and that's because the plot flowed so smoothly. I was not once bored while reading this, which can happen a lot with thrillers. I really liked that this book was creepy. I hate when books sound like they'd be creepy but just end up being cheesy or stereotypical, but this was legitimately creepy. I really loved that we got bits and pieces of other mysterious perspectives as well. The only parts I could have done with out was the 2nd person narration chapters breaks. They just didn't make sense to me when mixed in with the rest of the book. I'm sure I would have liked those snippets a whole lot better if they weren't in 2nd person, but instead either 1st or 3rd.

Now the plot of this book was definitely suspenseful. And the twist at the end was a payoff. I love when I can read a book and payoff is actually worth it. In this case, it was 100% worth it. Throughout the book I was left wondering if everything was happening in the main characters head or if there was actually something suspicious going on. I loved the atmosphere of this and will definitely be reading Slater's backlist soon.

If a man randomly offers you a fabulous apartment at a steal of a price... There's probably a reason for it.

I enjoyed this thriller, and flew through it. There aren't many surprises in it, and you're basically told from the beginning who the bad guys are. But it makes up for it with a creepy, paranoia-laced atmosphere. Like many horror movies, you'll be yelling at the characters, "get out of there!", but of course if they did there wouldn't be much of a story, eh?

I also have to say, as an American, I loved reading characters with a British voice.

Thanks to Netgalley for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A really good quick read. This story is a bit predictable but still had enough suspense to keep me reading. I liked the ending. It felt like the right way to end the story.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.