This was a gripping and fast paced thriller full of twists! Just what I like in a book. A few twists were predictable and a few weren’t but I enjoyed the journey all the same. I haven’t heard of this author before but I’m glad I have now and I look forward to reading more of their books!

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC copy!

Every Breath you Take is my very first ready my Miranda Riijks and I loved it! Told by two points of view, from "the Wife" and "the Lover", yes please! But who is the lover? And what kind of game are they playing?

After 15 years of what you think is a pretty great marriage that produced two beautiful children, imagine your husband goes out for the night with the boys and then sends you a late night text saying he's met someone else and is leaving you? By TEXT! Could you imagine? Then you start to get snapchats from a stranger threatning your husband's life and tasking you with proving you are moving on without your husband or else he dies!? 🔪 Absolutely bonkers, right? Do you play along? Or do you go to the police and risk your husband getting the ax? And what would your friends and family think of you if you started to "move on" with someone else after only say, 3 weeks of your husband being "missing"? Are YOU crazy or what in the batsh*t crazy h#$% is actually going on?????

Ok, sounds predictable, right? Yeah, NOOOOO!

Hold on because, wait, there's more!!!

I absolutely loved this book and it was a super fast and twisty (like a warm fresh-out-of-the-oven pretzel🥨) read that I coud NOT put down!

Just go get it, you'll thank me later!

You're welcome!

4 🍷🍷🍷🍷!!!!

Wow! What a great book! I could not put this down! It was full of suspense and twists and turns! I highly recommend this book!

I enjoyed this fast-paced read, although it was a little implausible. There were so many times I thought the MC should have made other choices…but then it wouldn’t be a twisty thriller, would it?

Every Breath You Take by Miranda Rijks is a decent psychological thriller, but it didn’t fully capture my attention. The suspense builds well, and the premise has potential, but the twists felt somewhat predictable. The characters are interesting, though not as deeply developed as I’d hoped. The pacing is steady, but there were moments where the plot dragged a bit. A solid 3 stars—an enjoyable read, but not as gripping as it could have been.

This is a gripping thriller that keeps readers on the edge of their seats from start to finish
The plot is filled with unexpected twists and turns, making it impossible to predict what will happen next.
The writing is both engaging and suspenseful, with well-developed characters that add depth to the narrative.
The pacing of the novel is perfect, with just the right amount of tension to keep readers hooked without feeling overwhelmed.
The setting is vividly described, creating an immersive atmosphere that enhances the overall reading experience.
Really gripping read.

3.5 rounded down....

I've gone through six of Miranda's previous books and I'm a little saddened to leave a 3.5 star for the book. I love her books! Her writing is great (light and fast-paced), but this one's plot is a bit unhinged. A lot of realism had to be suspended and the actions of the MC were eye-rolling at times... I was looking forward to a 'bucket list' twisted book and, unfortunately, it wasn't that. The dual POV between Wife and Lover worked well, and the story was palatable, apart from the weird demands.

Many thanks to the author and Netgalley for the advanced copy for an honest review

I loved this book it was such a great read. Things the first from this author and I’ll be reading more in future.

Wow, talk about a book with twists and turns! This book kept me reading late into the night. A great thriller that kept me guessing right up unto the end. Will definitely be searching out more books by this author.

I feel like I've become pretty good at guessing plot twists in recent months. The vast majority of my reading is filled with thrillers and mysteries so it was inevitable that, at some point, I would begin to pick up on the patterns and their plot twists. Every Breath You Take, however, was NOT one of those predictable books. At all.

This book was easy to follow and fun to read. Miradna Rijks' writing is great - not too complicated and flows well. This is absolutely a book you can pick up and finish in one sitting.

It wouldn't be a review post without another Miranda Rijks title and this one did not disappoint!

Every Breath You Take had me on the edge of my seat for the whole read! Full of twists and turns, some really tense and some genuinely frightening moments, I couldn't put this one down and it definitely got me out of my reading slump.

The dual POV between 'the wife' and 'the lover' is great and moves the story along at a good pace, while still keeping you guessing throughout.

I love a good thriller and Miranda Rijks really is a queen and one of my favourite thriller authors, due to her imaginative but so very relatable situations - which make her books all the more scary and shocking.

This book pulled me in from the start and never let go. The suspense was relentless, and the resolution was perfect! What more can you want?

Has her husband really left her? Or is someone playing a deadly game?

This was a fun and quick mystery with excellent atmosphere and great twists and turns. I really enjoyed it!

Do you love relaxing with a good thriller that will mess with your mind? Or are you, you know, normal? If you're like me and rely on twisty stories as a form of self-care, then Miranda Rijks is an author you definitely need to check out.

Every Breath You Take has a lot of OMG moments. I would love to talk to Rijks about how she comes up with her plots because this one delivers. There's one major twist that I did not see coming, and trust me, Rijks did not hold back on the shock factor here!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the gifted copy.

Three great books with Joe Swain and Pippa Durant. Piippa is a psychologist who helps DI Joe Swain solve crimes but their relationship becomes more. All were great reads

This was just Brilliant - I could not put this book down, imaginative, clever well white, and so easy to read I loved it.

O.M.G!! WOW!! My head is spinning … I was just blown away … So captivating and addictive… Had me on the edge of my seat … Just incredible!!

A missing husband...and a deadly list of dares...

Miranda Rijks has long time been a go-to author for me and the premise for this latest thriller (my 13th by her) drew me right in. I was intrigued as to what was really at play here. When the first big reveal came just halfway through, which I had funnily enough already theorised (so I was surprised to find I was right), I knew that there had to be a bigger better twist to come. But what that was, I had no idea. So when it came I was shocked by the twisted deviousness in her plotting! I certainly didn't see that coming.

Eva has just returned from a weekend in Amsterdam with her three besties - Angela, Kalah and Nicolette - to celebrate their collective fortieth birthdays. Straight into the haphazardness of mum life as she picks her two children Riley (11) and Alfie (9) from school and they return home full of the day's adventures. After packing them off to bed, a quick glance at the time tells Eva that it's gone 9pm and Samuel should have been home long before now. When he hadn't arrived home by the time she drifted off to sleep, she just assumed he had crashed at one of his mates' place after a drink or two at the pub.

But by morning, Samuel still hadn't arrived home and Eva began to worry. She rang his best mate Hunter who said he'd left the pub early the night before to return home and see her after her weekend away. After ringing a few people and his work, Eva calls the police to report him missing. But they aren't too concerned, citing most people return after a few hours, at the most a day or two.

And then Eva's phone beeps with a message. From Samuel. Finally! But nothing prepares her for what he discloses.

He has met someone, they are in love and he is leaving her to be with them.

What the...? Who ends a fifteen year marriage via text? Eva is both angry and upset in equal measure. But hold on, it doesn't end there. She receives another text with one word "Snapchat". She downloads the app and before long she receives a message to say that Samuel has been kidnapped and if she wants to see him alive again, she must follow the strict instructions completing a bucket list set out to her one by one by the kidnapper. If she goes to the police, Samuel dies. If she tells anyone, Samuel dies. If she fails to comply, Samuel dies.

What ensues are a list of rudimentary and ridiculous requests that she begins to follow until they start to become insane. From changing her Facebook status to single to signing up to a dating app and going on three dates to cutting off her gorgeous hair to barely an inch...and all of this must be captured on her social media. But when the requests border on insane, Eva knows she can no longer comply and must seek the police for help. But her every move is counteracted and stopped. Which leads Eva to wonder if she is being watched or tracked somehow...thus leading her to an old friend to turn for help.

For all intents and purposes, Eva looks as if she is spiralling out of control so is it no wonder no one believes her ludicrous allegations? She doesn't even have the proof to back up her claims because snapchats disappear as soon as you read them. Even when she tried screenshotting the threats, her tormenter knew and demanded she delete it or...face the consequences. If not Samuel's death, then her children's.

This is a fast paced entertaining thriller that does require you to suspend belief somewhat, but none of that matters if it is entertaining, which it is. I knew I didn't have it all figured out because who discloses their big reveal just halfway through a story knowing there's still a long way to go till the end. I knew Ms Rijks had something else up her sleeve but just what that was I had no idea. I was just prepared for something BIG...and it was. So big it blindsided me that I didn't see it coming. And I was expecting it! Hahaha.

I love the alternating chapters between "the wife" and "the lover" which will keep you guessing until she slips in her reveal that will leave you going, wait...what? The writing is addictive and plot is just crazy but like a car crash, you can't look away. My only complaint is how quick her friends and everyone else were quick to gather round and offer support when they had spent the entire book dismissing her theories and allegations as insane, citing she must be having a mental health breakdown. How quick the turnaround was after all was revealed. I would have thought - "sorry, but in times of adversity you find out who your true friends are" and they didn't seem to have her back at all.

Overall, a fast paced thrill ride that kept me engaged from start to finish, devouring it in just under 5 hours. A quick fast paced read that won't disappoint psychological thriller fans.

I would like to thank #MirandaRijks, #Netgalley and #InkubatorBooks for an ARC of #EveryBreathYouTake in exchange for an honest review.

This review appears on my blog at https://stinathebookaholic.blogspot.com/.

2024 has been an extraordinary year in which I have found some literary gems, but also some blunders and disappointments (literary ones, by the way).
I would like to say that Every Breath You Take belongs to the first group, but no: it is firmly planted among the literary failures.
With an interesting plot and a good start: a happily married woman returns from celebrating her birthday with her lifelong friends, but when she returns home her husband has disappeared and her kidnapper sends the wife text messages with tasks that she must complete if she wants to see her husband alive again...
This is where the book begins to lose my interest: the wife is so stupid that it does not occur to her to keep a copy of the kidnapper's demands, she begins to suspect everyone around her so that she seems to be going through a breakdown... anyway, I tried to ignore the protagonist's faults, but when I got to the end I felt that I seriously wasted several valuable hours of my life that, unfortunately, I will not be able to recover.
I have to admit that the author knows how to keep the curiosity alive, but I ABSOLUTELY DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS BOOK.
The opinion I have expressed above is based solely on what I think and feel about this book

This story is told from the perspectives of ‘the wife’ and ‘the lover’, with most of the chapters from the wife’s perspective. I love a multiple POV, so I enjoyed this aspect of the story.

I have read loads of Miranda Rijks’s books, and I love her characters and plot lines because they’re intense, twisty and intelligent. I would go as far as to say she is a favorite author.