I started this book before bed and told myself I was only going to read a few chapters and call it a night.... I ended up reading almost half of it instead. This book is so well written and suspenseful. The ending is utterly shocking! Just when you think you have the plot figured out, there’s another layer added on to keep you guessing and staying up all night. This is the perfect summer thriller.

Wow .. I did not see that ending coming! At all, completely shocked! What an ending!

I was so excited to be accepted to read this book as the storyline sounded fab! Perfect thriller and it did not disappoint!

From the beginning it grabbed me in and set the scene in my head perfectly, I felt like I was watching it on the screen or right there with them. I could picture the characters and I could feel the emotions they did. Very well written. I also liked how the different chapters were based on different characters and it jumped from present day to a year ago. It really helped set the story.

I still can’t get over the ending but I won’t give any spoilers as you need to read it yourself ;)

Thank you NetGalley and HQ stories for allowing me to read this book! Amazing!

This is my first book to read by Amanda Brittany, but definitely won't be my last. This suspenseful whodunnit had me on the edge of my seat! Amelia is plunged into a game of cat and mouse while trying to unravel the mystery of her sister's disappearance. The journey leads her down dangerous paths of murder and betrayal. She is forced to question who to trust and who she really knows in this twisty tale with an ending I never saw coming. The isolation of the Scottish Highlands sets the stage perfectly as Amelia searches for answers and struggles to survive the elusive killer that holds her fate. This is a page turner from beginning to end! Thank you NetGalley and HQ Digital for my ARC!

Eerie, suspenseful, twisty, and extremely engrossing-this book was just so much fun to read!

While this book isn’t the first of its kind in an extremely crowded genre, and it certainly won’t be the last i’m sure, I have to say that its one of the better ones that i’ve read, and it actually managed to catch me off guard with some of the reveals and revelations. And while it did have some of the usual tropes pertaining to this genre, it was so well written and fun to read that it managed to come out fresh instead of stale and boring unlike some of the other books that are similar in nature.

This book is like The Strangers: Blizzard Edition. You know, The Strangers as in the creepy ass movie with the creepy ass people lurking around the couple’s house in masks in order to scare the hell out of them before murdering them? (the most disturbing of all being the dude in the white mask? I still shudder just thinking about him.)

If The Strangers and And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie had a child in the form of a book, it would be this one. Not because of the plot lines exactly, but because of certain elements taken from each and combined.

Locked room concept. People all brought together and then stranded in said location due to a snow storm (my favorite type of locked room mystery. the stranded and unable to leave due to a blizzard while a killer is on the loose. I don’t know why they are just the most fun to read). A killer running around, taking people out one by one. But the most disturbing part in this particular story? The person(s) running around wearing the mask-staring through windows, lurking behind trees and staring through the blizzard-y night silently while wearing said mask, ala’ Michael Myers style, bizarrely leaving identical looking masks all over the holiday property, because apparently just wearing them isn’t creepy enough. Add in the fact that there are also shrill screams coming from the woods in the middle of the night, and the creepy factor goes up even more!

Are you intrigued/scared yet? You should be!

This particular story involves around a family and friends returning to a holiday location on the one year anniversary of the disappearance of a girl named Lark, who may or may not still be alive. Her father, wanting to search for clues, has decided to return to where she vanished to the previous year, a holiday cottage, in hopes of uncovering new clues as to her whereabouts and what happened to her. Joining him on this information seeking holiday, is his daughter Amelia, along with her brother and his caretaker. Staying in another of the cottage’s properties is a woman and her stepdaughter, who were also there the previous year when everything went horribly wrong. During the second night of everyone’s stay, new horrors begin to befall them, and soon they are entangled in a new nightmare that twists and weaves its self around the already tense atmosphere. Before long, another girl has disappeared, and it becomes clear that one of them may be a murderer.

This story flips back and forth between present day, and the previous year when Lark disappeared, and the glimpses into the past only made the story that much more intriguing and mysterious, as it made me that much more eager to find out exactly what happened to her, and what her disappearance may have to do with the current mystery and horrors taking place in the present day.

All of the characters become suspect, and the mystery of who the murderer was and why was captivating, and it all lead to a conclusion that I never saw coming!

Engaging, suspenseful, eerie, and excellently written and plotted out, this book will keep you utterly engrossed from start till finish!

Amazing thriller! Highly recommend!

Do you like murder mysteries? Do you want a psychological thriller that does not follow the usual, stereotypical plot outline? Do you want to be on the edge of your seat? Then this is the book you NEED to read.

I’ll be honest at first when I started reading I was a little dubious. The protagonist Amelia is having a really rough time. So tough in fact, that it’s almost unbelievable; missing sister, mum has died from cancer, boyfriend has left etc. It felt a little over the top but when I look back now it helped to weave the pace of the story and it fulfilled the outcome.

During reading I was flitting between past and present; past being a year before when Amelia’s mum was still alive and her sister was around. It wasn’t confusing at all which sometimes happens for me and added to the depth of the characters and the storyline.

The murder mystery element of who did what and why was captivating; I could not stop reading and that’s rare for me as I treasure my sleep! I was genuinely excited to pick it back up and carry on.

What an excellent and unique novel that has you engrossed, enticed and enraptured. It was such a surprise and completely unexpected at the end. Read it!

I lie in wait⭐️
People dont just disappeared. But Lark dissapeared from their family’s holidays without a trace. The case ran cold but Amelia, Larks sisteris convinced that Lark is still out there. When another girl goes missing rhe same way Anelia is on the hunt to find them both.

On problem that really kept me from enjoying the story was that we kept getting pulled back in time then to the present before I really got to know anything. The chapters were really short that it prevented me from getting into the story.

Thank you to Netgally via forsending me an ARC copy of I lie in wait by amanda Brittany. This is available on august 28 2020.

Thanks to NetGalley and to the publisher for the ARC, which I received in exchange for my honest review. I Lie in Wait, is part locked room mystery, part psychological thriller. The author uses familiar literary devices such as past and present storylines and multiple point of view narration which are common in the genre. Most of the story is told through Amelia, a young woman who is reeling from the disappearance of her sister as well as the death of her mother from cancer. Amelia is also facing the loss of her unborn child and the break up of her long term relationship.

Amelia's sister disappeared from a holiday cottage on the Drummondale Estate in the Scottish highlands during a final trip planned by their dying mother. One year later, Amelia finds herself traveling back to scene of the crime with her father, her brother and her brother's caregiver. When a snowstorm hits the area, the family is trapped and the bodies begin to pile up. There are many red herrings and the reader is not sure who to trust.

This book has a lot of characters to keep up with and readers will have to pay close attention in order to keep track of whether the action is taking place in the present or the past. Although the latter half of the book does get a bit outlandish with both a diabolical serial killer and an obsessed lover on the loose, it is an enjoyable read. The author does a great job of tying up loose ends and I was satisfied with the conclusion.

Overall, this is a solid thriller and I do recommend.

I found this psychological suspense story a bit tongue in cheek. A bit like a horror film where you are almost shouting at the screen 'don't go in there in the dark!' There are many twists and turns in the story. that keeps you on your toes, especially as the story is told with the same people at its core but on different timelines. I found the narrative a bit naive and the characters one dimensional. A good plot but could possibly have been told in a different way.

I'm afraid this really wasn't for me. A 1* didn't like it.

It's definitely got twists and turns, too many for me! I also found the backwards and forwards very confusing and the characters are one dimensional and just not that interesting.

I hope others enjoy, but, I really struggled to finish it.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity.

The beginning and end of this book are absolutely fantastic. The beginning is heartbreaking. The end has a twist that, even though I have read hundreds of this genre of book, i didn't see coming. I read it quickly, which is another sign of a quality story. Great story told really well with more twists and turns than twisty turny thing

The idea and plot behind this book is really good but sadly I did not like the formatting. The story is told over 3 timelines (1 year ago, the present and now) and I found it difficult as it kept switching between each timeline.

I really struggled with the first third of the book and then it was like someone else was writing the story and it did get more interesting.from that point.

Amanda Brittany is clearly an experienced and clever author but this book, sadly, did not connect me very well with the characters and settings.

Many thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an early review copy of this book to read on the Kindle. Also thanks to the publishers and author for the work that they do

This book belongs to the category of fucked-up-because-of-author. Seriously how could the author wrote such a good plot in poor way. The dialogue is ridiculous. Who would talk in such a way when they are stranded at a place with a killer lurking somewhere.

Also the book ends in phases. Each plot is closed not at a single point of time but at various stages. This doesn't work well.

Keeping everything aside, if the writing had been good and also narrating the book from a different angle would have made the book really good.

3+ stars.

Amelia Taylor’s seventeen year old sister disappears from a holiday cottage in the Scottish Highlands a year ago. Their father Thomas wants to return to Drummondale House a year on to see if they can find any trace of her. If the first visit can be described as a nightmare holiday then the second is the holiday from hell. The story is told principally by Amelia and goes backwards and forwards from the Present to a year ago.

The book starts really well. I love the atmospheric setting of the Highlands and this visit there is deep snow, they are trapped and this adds an additional element which is good. The emotions of a year ago are well captured too and the Past/ Present storyline works well too. There’s a Gothic dimension to the storytelling with ghostly and creepy occurrences which initially is really good. There is a real air of mystery hanging over the Drummondale Estate which is also good and there’s tension, suspense with the feeling of waiting for something bad to happen.

However, the book loses its way for me when the plot developments become too over the top. Some of the dialogue just doesn’t ring true and at times made me almost wince as mayhem is occurring around the characters. They also seem to think that putting the kettle on and making tea will solve the chaos!! Masks play an important role in the story and as time goes on the image I have in my head is the Lone Ranger which I’m pretty sure the author is not aiming for!!

Overall, a good start to the book, it’s mostly enjoyable but becomes overly dramatic but if you can suspend disbelief you may enjoy this one.

With thanks to NetGalley and HQ for the ARC.

From the start I had no idea who kidnapped Lark or why. As we got all the suspects together a year later, it gets very Agatha Christie but obviously too modern. The want to know who took Lark, who killed Ruth as a start and then it leads to two separate stories........read it and figure it out!!!

Nice psychological thriller that starts with a bang. Sometimes you're just after an easy read you can enjoy without major complication and to me this is the perfect novel for that. I loved this book and definitely recommend it!

A very average thriller. The story is completely unconvincing, and none of the characters are particularly sympathetic. I found myself skimming over the pages to see how it ended, as I found it somewhat less than compelling.

This is a real page turning read with strong characters, most of whom seem to have quirks that leave you wondering just what they know and what they are capable of. Telling it from several perspectives worked really well and although Amelia, the main character, seemed innocent Ruth, the manager, seemed a dubious character. I did work out some of what had happened but by no means all and the ending was fantastic.

#ILieInWait #NetGalley
I loved it.
Amelia Taylor’s sister, Lark, vanished without a trace from a family holiday in the Scottish Highlands.
The police are convinced that Lark was abducted, but with no new leads, the case has gone cold. Amelia is certain that the answer lies at the holiday cottage and retracing their steps might unearth a vital clue that could help make a breakthrough.
But during their second night at the cottage a shrill scream cuts through the darkness, just as it did a year ago, and a sense of dread engulfs everyone.
Thanks to NetGalley and HQ Digital for giving me an advance copy of this awesome psychological thriller.

spoiler alert ** This opens with a bang... and then sort of slows right down.
Told over three timelines (a year ago,present day and now) it jumps about a bit.
It was fairly unbelievable BEFORE people started dying,but it was good fun.
Lots of guesses as to who,why what.
Extra points added for a plot line I did not see coming at all.....
If you were going on holiday any time soon,this would be a perfect "beach read"

Let me begin this review saying that “I lie in wait” managed something that not many psychological suspense stories can do, specially with so many of them out there. Its ending caught me completely unaware, to the point I should reread some passages because when I read them it was with my theory on mind and as I was proved totally wrong maybe there were some clues I didn’t catch.

Although it deals with some of the usual tropes of the genre, as a missing girl, past and present storylines, a group of characters isolated by a snowstorm with several of them dropping dead, it managed to grabbed my attention practically from page one. I flew through the first 60%, then I went on holidays and didn’t seem to find time to go back to it (I was so tired at night than I only managed a couple of chapters) but as it was raining today I knew it was time to finish it, and I’m glad to say that the ending was totally satisfying, both past and present lines.

If I had to make a critique would be that as both past and present lines take place at the same place with practically the same cast of characters, just one year apart, some times it was a bit confusing trying to remember which line we were in or where we have left the characters at the end of the previous chapter of that timeline. Anyway, both of them were quite engrossing, so that was just a minor complaint.

Fast paced suspense story with an ending that caught me by surprise, and for a hardcore fan of psychological suspense that’s quite a feat.

This was my second Amanda Brittany novel and as I’ve enjoyed both of them pretty much I should definitely check her earlier work.

Thanks to Netgalley and HQ Digital for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.