Thus was a really good book. It kept my interest, and I totally guessed wrong about some of the characters. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

A page turner book
About a woman who loses her husband in an accident, but he was leaving her for an older woman.
The wife was selling the house and had to move.
Freya was in a coffee shop and a guy offered her an apartment for cheap rent.
Psychological thriller

“The Apartment”—K.L. Slater [3.5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫] This was my first read by this author and I quite enjoyed this fast-paced thriller. Freya Miller has not had much luck recently with the loss of her husband, and she’s about to lose her home and the security it provides for her and her five year old daughter Skye. Worried about what her next move is going to be, she’s in a coffee shop and meets the charismatic Dr. Marsden who offers her an amazing opportunity to live in an affordable apartment in the fancy Adder House in London. He is quite sure that Freya and her daughter will be a great fit there and will get along great with the residents. She thinks this will be a great chance for a fresh start for her and Skye. Freya starts to realize that the Adder House has some secrets. Odd things start occurring and she feels like she is being watched, and her hopes for a promising new start start to become a nightmare. As we learn more of the truth, will Freya and Skye be able to leave the apartment, or will they be trapped there? This book only fell short of 4 stars for me because I was expecting a little more from the ending and I had a few unanswered questions. I would definitely recommend checking out this book if you like a good thriller 👍🏼 *Thank you to @netgalley and @amazonpublishinguk for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review*

“The Apartment” is a mildly entertaining, fast read that is competently written with a well-developed main character. However, it fails to deliver on the “thriller” aspect as explained more fully below.

In this book, Freya is desperately trying to find an apartment that she can afford to live in with her 5 year old daughter, Sky, since she must move out of the heavily mortgaged house she recently sold. She had lived in the house with her estranged husband, who moved in with another woman, and then was killed, leaving Freya a very small life insurance policy that will only last her about 6 months. While in a Starbucks searching apartment listings, a Dr. Marsden approaches Freya and offers to rent her an apartment in a house in a wealthy section of Kensington at a very low rate. The offer appears too good to be true, but Freya needs to find something soon and can’t resist the offer. Freya soon learns that her instincts to distrust the generous offer were well founded.

Although the story was competently written in such a way that you sympathize with Freya and somewhat feel her anxiety over the experiences she has at the house, the story nevertheless feels a bit dull. Specifically, a lot of the story is focused on her child care responsibilities (moving her daughter from her old school to a new one, helping her daughter cope with the changes, etc.) which are somewhat tedious. Moreover, nothing that happens at the house is all that scary.

Overall, the book is a quick average read that will keep the reader mildly entertained but does not rise to the level of a “psychological thriller.”

I had mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, I liked the premise a lot and found the old psychological writings interspersed with the narrative intriguing. On the other hand, I felt there was too little of that, and too much time spend on everyday aspects of a mother and child who are moving to a new apartment. The beginning of the story moved a bit slowly for my taste, and I felt that a pivotal event/discovery about 50 percent of the way through could have been made earlier in the the book for more suspense.

In retrospect, I think this is a "don't judge a book by its cover" situation. I'm a big fan of B.A. Paris, and the cover of this book was a lot like hers, which put me in mind to expect a fast-paced, high octane type thriller that I was excited to read. Instead, I agree with a previous reviewer that this book was a bit "flowery" and took quite a bit of time to get to the scary part. Ultimately, not a lot happened to the main character and her daughter until the very end, and there just wasn't enough mystery in the previous case to draw me in.

The ending of the book, though, was good, but a little abrupt - I wish I'd seen more hints and details and scariness about what was ultimately happening in the house before the end of the book.

I think if the description and marketing of this book painted it as less of a psychological thriller, or if I had been expecting less of a fast paced book, I might have enjoyed it more if I read it in a different mood. But as a psychological thriller it lacked some action and scariness for me. The author is a good writer, but I would have liked a little more octane.

3.5 Stars Rounded to 4

The Apartment by K.L. Slater is a quick, attention getting thriller. Some things are truly too good to be true as Frieda and her 5 year old daughter Skye find out. While I enjoyed this book, I was a little disappointed in the ending. There are a couple of holes I felt were not filled in. Overall a good book with characters you'll love to either love or hate.

Thank you to Netgallery and Amazon Publishing UK for the free digital copy in exchange for an honest and voluntary review. All opinions are my own.

Amazon review to be posted once published.

Creepy and twisty! Loved this book and so glad I’ve had the chance to explore more of this author. Thank you so much!!

Have you ever heard the saying "if it seems to good to be true, it probably is"?

Freya Miller is down on her luck. After the unexpected loss of her husband (which we never learn how he died; irrelevant anyhow), Freya must find a new place to live for her and her five-year-old daughter, Skye, before his insurance money runs out. As she's browsing the posted ads for available places to rent, the enigmatic, yet charming Dr. Marsden appears with several brochures for the recently-vacated apartment in his building, the Adder House. This apartment is near the illustrious Kensington Gardens, and is far outside of Freya's price range, but Dr. Marsden assures her that they choose their tenants based upon fit with the rest of the residents, not ability to pay. Brushing off the warnings of her closest friends, Freya and Skye move in within the week but quickly find themselves experiencing odd and downright terrifying things.

This was a phenomenal, tension-building thriller, and I found myself at the edge of my seat wondering what was coming next. Slater painted the deliciously creepy villains, Dr. and Mrs. Marsden, with excellent detail, down to the types of riches that they had in their apartment and their incredibly odd/somewhat disturbing behaviors. I loved the references to a well-known psychologist and his study that was conducted in the 1920's, as I felt that it added a lot of depth to the story. The only thing that I'd change about the novel is the ending. While it provided resolution, I wished that the author would have spent more time detailing the climatic event with Freya and the Marsdens. That being said, this was truly a crazy ride, and I'd recommend it to anyone that enjoys thrillers.

This is a 3.5 rounded to 4 rating on The Apartment by K. L. Slater The plot line was okay though the first action taken by Freya is one where you are going not only no, but he’ll no, and The Apartment is full of these.

The book, The Apartment, opens up with a woman being observed at a coffee shop by a gentleman, Dr Marsden, while she is perusing the For Rent ads on the local bulletin board.

Frey’s is a recently widowed woman in London with a 5 year old daughter Skye. Her husband, Lewis, had just left her for her good friend and then is dead. She is trying to figure out her next steps. Dr. Marsden offers her a crazy opportunity to rent in the exclusive Kensington area for a ridiculously low cost which is the first hell no moment. Then there several more!

The Apartment to me was not bad, not great and had good twists though I had it figured out pretty quickly.
#TheApartment #netgalley

"There's something about that place that's just not right. I know you must feel it, too."

I feel it! But Freya is sticking her head in the sand, because she just wants to be happy! Who could blame her? Her husband cheats on her, leaves her, then dies. Now she's broke and jobless with her young daughter, Skye. She just sold her house. Can't she catch a break? In walks Dr. Marsden with the champagne apartment on a platter - at beer budget price. Should she have looked the gift horse in the mouth? (Yes.) But she. just. wants. it. to. work!

But things get weird quickly in THE APARTMENT. Little things that had her (and me!) questioning her sanity. What is really going on? Are her and her daughter in danger?

I really liked this book! It really created a nice concept of place! I could picture Adder House and it's posh neighborhood! Being able to walk to Kensington Palace. I ate that up like bread pudding! Or some other English dessert! I also love a British feeling book - Jane Austen and Harry Potter long ago made me an Anglophile! - and this one definitely fit that bill.

I loved that it involved "Little Albert" - a child in a psychological experiment by Dr. Watson (father of behaviorism) that involved creating fear in a child. I'm pretty sure if you've taken a beginning Psychology course they will have talked about this (Am I right?). Most of the psychological experiments that were conducted in times previous, that we study today in Psychology programs at the college level, were unethical by today's standards. Or really by anyone's normal standards. But "Little Albert's" study always stuck with me as especially cruel, as it involved a child. Anyways, if someone doesn't know that psychology has a weird and dark history - or if they're uninterested in that sort of thing - then I could see where they may not appreciate this book, but to me it was completely up my alley!

And I liked the ending! I guess I'm in the minority on that, but I thought it made perfect sense. I had a couple (minor) questions at the end, I felt didn't get answered, and a couple things I wish hadn't been rushed, thus the 4 instead of 5 stars.

But still, I truly enjoyed this book! I couldn't put it down! It has the suspense amped up making it a quick read! And it had great characters and an entrancing setting!

MY RATING:
Characters: 5
Story: 4
Overall: 4.5

YOU need this book if you're looking for a quick, psychologically thrilling trip to London!

FOLLOW ME (please!) and see more reviews @ www.mamaneedsabook.blogspot.com
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Well this is certainly different from the usual crime/thriller books I read. I have to say it was very gripping and it did spook me at times.

You just know that Freya isn’t imagining the noises, the flashing red lights, but what we don’t know is why. It was a shame really because the house itself appeared to be beautiful and in different circumstances ideal, but wow it was creepy.

There was a couple of loose ends, who was the man who Audrey was enamoured with? We didn’t find that out and some of the other residents we didn’t get to meet.

All in all, I enjoyed it, it was different. Made a nice change from murder.

My thanks to K L Slater, the publishers and netgalley for the ARC.

This was a great quick read. I’m a big fan of this author to begin with and they didn’t disappoint. I wasn’t sure where the story was going to go and I was hooked right from the beginning. I would definitely recommend

Thank you to NetGalley, Amazon Publishing UK, and K. L. Slater for a free electronic ARC of The Apartment in exchange for an honest review!

The Apartment was my first introduction to K. L. Slater. Unfortunately, this introduction was not great, as this book completely fell flat and did not work for me.

The Apartment follows Freya Miller, and her five-year-old daughter, Skye, as they move into the apartment of their dreams. Located in a super posh area in London, the Adder House is offered to Freya for a fraction of the cost, as she and Skye are just the type of tenants that Dr. Marsden is looking to have live in his beautiful and luxurious building. What Freya believes to be too good to be true, turns out to be just that, as she quickly discovers that the rest of the tenants, are strange and overbearing, hiding secrets, and seem to be watching her everywhere she goes--inside her own unit!

The Apartment was a quick and easy read, but I felt that I was never really able to get into the different characters’ stories. Other than Freya, the characters lacked depth and I found that certain relationships did not develop properly whatsoever. It also seemed strange to me that Freya could be so trusting, and divulge her whole life story to others within two minutes of meeting them.

I’d also like to add that while this book mostly took place in the present, it also featured some journal entries written by Beatrice (who turns out to be Freya’s ancestor) in the early 1900s.  These entries focus on some sort of psychological experiment that is re-created (in the present) at Freya’s expense. The connection of these journal entries to both the main character and the ending of the book did not make any sense to me.  I felt that the journal entries themselves came out of nowhere and were not transitioned into the story line in the best way.  I also found the ending of the book to be really rushed, and as a result, I could not follow it properly.

Overall, I think the premise of the book could have been interesting, but it was not executed properly and I found the entire story to be completely unbelievable.

1.5 stars, rounded up!

https://rebekahreads.ca/the-apartment-by-k-l-slater/

I absolutely adore a good thriller, so when I got the opportunity to read this I was immediately excited, it sounded like something I would definitely be interested in. The book follows Freya and her young daughter Skye, who are currently grieving the loss of Lewis, Skye's father who passed away in an accident. Following financial struggles, Freya is approached by a man who offers her a potentially "too good to be true" opportunity to rent a flat in the luxurious Adder House. During their stay in Adder House, strange things begin to happen and Freya's trust in the residents at the house is tested.

What I found interesting in this book is the use of the real-life study of Little Albert in the field of behavioural psychology. As someone who has studied psychology in the past, I was very familiar with this study and was definitely intrigued to see how it would come into play within the plot. However, I'm not entirely sure I ended up liking this style of writing. Knowing that this study was conducted in real life, and the ethical implications of the study, I'm not sure it quite ended up having the payoff I would have liked to have seen. It felt kind of forced and I'm just unconvinced it was necessary as a plot device.

While the plot definitely kept me hooked throughout my reading, it was slow at certain points and felt kind of repetitive at times. It felt kind of like we were going round in circles knowing from the beginning that we weren't to trust the residents of Adder House, and I didn't feel any sort of betrayal or shock at any reveals. Everything remotely shocking came right at the very end of the book and all happened very quickly and honestly just didn't really hit very hard for me, it felt kind of lacklustre and disappointing. I didn't feel entire satisfied at the end and still had some questions about side characters and their actions, and I felt like we needed more of a wrap up than a very short epilogue.

It was a perfectly enjoyable read, but definitely not something I would see myself rereading. As I was reading the book, it felt like it was kind of similar in vibe to Lock Every Door in terms of a person in financial struggle being offered a suspicious opportunity, but Lock Every Door absolutely knocked this idea out of the park and had such shocking twists and turns, and would 100% recommend that book more!

Thanks to Amazon Publishing UK for sending me this book to review!!

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC
This was definitely a first class read, It kept me on the edge of my seat.
I have to say that the "experiment" made for extremely uncomfortable reading. An excellent idea for a plot though- quite ingenious
Very well written and constructed. I had no issues at all with the text.
The characters were well drawn and I did sympathise with Freya and Skye. I did not guess the ending (I always try not to anyway). This is the first book I have read by this author and it certainly won't be the last= I love the plot development and the writing-5 star read

Things were looking better for a struggling single mom when she gets the opportunity to move into a new luxurious apartment with her daughter. But the apartment comes with its own sinister secrets and soon unsettling occurrences start happening.

I finished this book yesterday and was literally blown out by it. This isn't just a regular piece of fiction, it's more than that. The story is wrapped around real events in history, highlighting the horrors of unethical scientific experiments practiced on humans (a minor in this case) in the name of progress of science. I jumped onto google as soon as I finished this book, and was just appalled by it. As they say, truth is stranger than fiction. Much appreciation for the author for writing this, my heart goes out to the victim.

As for the story itself, it's instantly gripping and a very fast read. The sense of creepiness and unsettling keeps on growing with every chapter, and keeps you on your toes throughout. Even though it revolves around a sad event in history, it's not disturbing at all. Highly recommended if you like reading about mad scientists and even if you don't, this makes for a very enjoyable, thrilling read.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the eARC.

When I'd read the synopsis for this book I was immediately hooked because it soundes similar to Lock Every Door and I really loved that book. Both of them take place at a creepy luxurious house with peculiar neighbours and both of them are dressed in mystery.

The main character, Freya, doesn't have the best time of her life. Her husband, who recently abandoned her and her 5-year old daughter for another woman, died. She doesn't have a job and on top of that she had to sell her house when she doesn't really know where she will move.

Then she gets a too good to be true offer to live in a luxurious house near Kensington Palace and the rent is up to her.

I definitely liked the relationship between Freya and Skye, their moments were adorable and I liked how she took into consideration her daughter's feelings. Skye was absolutely the best and sometimes she felt a little bit older than five years. I also really liked the neighbours because they definitely added to the creepy atmosphere of the place.

The story was definitely a quick read, I felt like I was flying through it but I quickly realised that this is nothing like Lock Every Door. I'm not a pro in mystery thrillers, but this has nothing from the creepy atmosphere and suspense of Lock Every Door. More than half of the book was about Freya's relationship with her husband and about them moving to new house and dealing with changing school and stuff. It was I think 60% when the story picked up and it started to get somewhat spooky but even that felt very confusing and mediocre.

What confused me were the different timelines and different storylines. We get the present, some of Freya's past and then we also get these weird chapter of unknown character who is stalking Skye and who shows us a professor doing experiment on a boy.... I was very confused by this and felt indiferent.

The whole climax wasn't nearly as dramatic as I would like, maybe because the suspense picked up way after the half of the book and it didn't have enough time to really sit with me.

Overall I quite enjoyed the story as such but I definitely wanted something more, at least based on the blurb.

This book is a fast and fun read-perfect for fans of psychological thrillers. It isn't mind-blowing literature to any extent of the imagination, but it is engaging and entertaining, perfect for a day at the beach or a rainy day inside. It is an easy read that readers will devour quickly because they can't wait to find out what happens next.

The premise of the book is pretty simple. Things were looking quite bleak for single-mom Freya and her daughter Skye until they were given an amazing opportunity to live in an upscale apartment for far less than the going rate. But of course, as the saying goes, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. Immediately upon moving into Adder House, Freya and Sky begin to notice is is not a ideal as they had hoped it would be.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and K.L. Slater for the opportunity to read this entertaining book. It is my first book by this author, but it will not be my last.

While this book was described as a psychological thriller, it was more of a horror story in my opinion. I got about 25% through and could not finish. Thank you for the opportunity to review, but it just wasn't for me.

I felt myself being sucked in, unable to put the book down as I watched the hot mess that is Freya, repeatedly and naively ignore blatant red flags. Her desire for something affordable and stable wins out despite the warning signs. The premise of a desperate mother who just wants a place to live, a home for her daughter which turns out too good to be true, was fun.

There were a few minor inconsistencies that stood out to me. The ending felt too neatly wrapped up without explaining certain things. But despite that, this was an enjoyable read. I requested this from Amazon Publishing UK because the premise sounded fun and it was an author I hadn’t read before. But then I undertook the task of scanning all my books into a tracking app, and it turns out I have a book by Slater. I don’t know if this was the best book to introduce me to her writing. This was a good premise, with a few hiccups, but a fun, 3.5-star read.