Thank you Boldwood Books and Netgalley for the opportunity to ARC read this book.
Starting out strong, this book definitely captured my heart but it was not able to retain that as the story crawled to its end. It has such a creative plot twist and the book is well written vocabulary wise but I felt like the written POV style (change between first and third pov) kept me confused.

This slapped honestly. Every character was sketch, every decision made me question what was happening, and man did this wrap up perfectly. DO IT AGAIN I LOVED IT!

I always look forward to reading an Amanda Brittany thriller, and I was delighted to be approved for an early peek at this. It lived up to my high expectations and I would recommend.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

I absolutely loved this book, and it’s shot into my top reads of the year for sure!

Now You Are Mine follows Polly, who having had her live flipped upside down by a stalker, decides to visit an art retreat in the Lake District, in a house she believes her biological mother once lived in. Once there, things start to go horribly wrong for Polly - has her stalker somehow followed her or is she dredging up family secrets that should stay hidden?

I will say that initially I found there to be a few too many characters and it was slightly overwhelming keeping track of them, but as the story progressed, they all play a key role and are there for a reason. The story is told from multiple narrative perspectives and over different time periods, and is expertly written to weave a complex tale of murder, broken families and buried secrets. Throughout the story we are offered lots of possibilities of what happened and plenty of opportunity to guess, but I was still surprised by the ending and it wasn’t a theory I had considered, which I love as usually you can tell ‘who done it’ early on. An absolute must read for fans of thriller and suspense stories!
Thank you to netgalley and Boldwood books for an ARC of this in exchange for my honest views.

Thanks to Boldwood Books and NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I was intruiged for this book, but sadly it wasn't my kind of thriller. I skimmed through parts cause it felt slow and not much was happening besides in the end. Not my kind of psychological thriller.

Now You Are Mine by Amanda Brittany, When the story begins we meet Polly Ashton all her life she has known she was adopted but the only clue she has to her birth parents is an anonymous picture of a 16 year old girl thought to be her mom. and the house she is standing in front of and it’s the reason for her booking this artist retreat at “the lake house.” Polly isn’t an artist but the retreat is open to any level artist but she isn’t prepared for the eclectic group of people she meets when she arrives especially the owner Xavier. The Lakehouse’s history is that the people who lived there before Steven and Ezma Frampton had a suicide pact got swallowed up by the lake and was never seen again. Polly thinks she may possibly be related to them and this is why she is there. The owners already have had protest in strange threatening letters sent to them but it seems when Polly arrives the strange events only become more frequent and more targeted towards her. She really becomes concerned because before leaving home her and her roommate Nikki were stalked by one of Nickie’s one night stands and she fears the stalker may have followed her. Before it’s over however polly will find out more than she wanted to know an solves murders a kidnapping and even a threat to her own life. This was such a good full complete story. They have a lot of characters in the book but if you read and pay attention I found it was very easy to follow every third or fourth chapter is in the past with Ezma and racist abusive Stephen. What else can I say the writing is really good the story is well told Polly is very likable as well as Martha and even Tara had me feeling sorry for her there is something that irked me in the book but it is minor and if I mention it here it will give one of the many key plot points away and trust me there are lots of twist that are so worth reading the book and waiting for. So I would just say if you want a great mystery/thriller then you will definitely enjoy this book I absolutely enjoyed it loved it found it so entertaining and definitely recommend it.#NetGalley, #BoldwoodBooks, #AmandaBritney, #NowYouAreMine,

A great read, sinister and twisty!

Polly arrives at an art retreat in The Lake District with an ulterior motive - she wants to find the truth of what happened to her birth mother. But she is going to get way more than she bargained as she's not the only person there with a hidden agenda!

The story is narrated by Polly, Tara, who owns the retreat with her husband, and Esme, who lived at Lakeside House 26 years earlier.

The writing is suspenseful and the characters are well written with plenty of sinister undertone, which kept me hooked. I was totally surprised by the outcome, expecting Polly to food out what happened to her family would be the conclusion, but there was so much more!

4 ⭐️ Thanks to Netgalley, Amanda Brittany and Boldwood for an ARC in return for an honest review.

2.5 ⭐️!

unfortunately, i was fighting my way through this book while in the middle of the worst reading slump imaginable. hence, the experience was affected tremendously. i felt like the storyline dragged on for ages and the events were getting somewhat repetitive? moreover, a little more than half way through, i couldn’t find it in me to care about a single character, including our female protagonist.

had the plot line been more interesting, this could’ve been an easy three stars. i just felt it lacked depth.

this thriller follows polly (our fmc), tara (one of lakeside’s owners), and esme (whose story takes place 26 years earlier). something that completely caught me off guard was the fact that polly and tara’s chapters were in third person’s POV while esme’s were in first. it was honestly a whiplash. i would’ve preferred if all three were in first person’s POV. it would’ve made everything much easier to digest.

compared to most thrillers, <i>now you are mine</i> had great writing. the vocabulary and word choices used were nicely descriptive, and some quotes were chef’s kiss. i could easily imagine everything happening within those pages because the author captured everything so vividly. i also found the plot twist creative as hell. there were two main ones, and both were INSANE.

I found this book to be a little difficult to read. In the beginning, I had a hard time keeping the characters straight and felt like everything was a little too jumbled and all over the place. Although I finished reading it, it all fell a little flat for me. I do appreciate the opportunity to read this ARC so thank you Netgalley and Boldwood Books!

I give this book a 4 star.
I did find most of the characters to be kinda forgettable. There really wasn’t too much to them. It was hard to keep them straight in the beginning.
Polly goes to an art retreat in hopes to find out more about her past. But she finds more then she bargained for. Attempting to put a stalking incident behind her. She tries to find a bit of background of her real mom who died while giving birth to her.
If you enjoy a story with large twists you won’t see coming then this is definitely a good read. Honestly it was the twist I didn’t see coming which upped my rating. The story starts out ok but really picks up towards the end. I would definitely recommend this to someone who likes a slight thriller with a twist.

Wow, what a thrillfest of a read this is! There is a lot going on in this book and you are pulled in all sorts of directions trying to fit the puzzle together and work out everyone's agenda's. It's a fantastic locked-room story, with an ominous setting and an oddball cast of characters who do nothing but surprise you as a reader. Everything I love in a psychological thriller - highly recommend.

A good premise. I liked the idea of the art retreat, and loved the visual of the Lake District and the house. It was a good thriller, with an intriguing mystery, and a good cast of characters.

Lakeside House is a beautiful property, set in an idyllic landscape. New owners Xander and Tara have turned a derelict house into a retreat for artists, and are excited to meet and greet their first guests. From the off there is a strangeness about the venue, with all of the newly arrived guests having a secret or two, and the house having a dark, sinister past. Xander, a prominent artist, and Tara, a mediocre one according to Xander, also have their own deceits, plus a dodgy relationship.

When torrential rain cuts the house off from the nearest village, and guests start to disappear, we know the residents are in for a rocky ride!

An exciting, well paced read that had everything thrown at it! Lots of action with more than a surprise or two. Some of the twists were pretty much well signposted with flashing lights, but still an enjoyable read, with a well sorted ending. The characters were a little confusing, but once I had become used to who’s who the story flowed well.

3.5*

Thank you NetGalley and Boldwood Books.

Polly and her friend shared a flat, and they had been preyed upon by a stalker, so had moved out for a while. Nicky went to stay with parents, and Polly signed up for an art retreat in the hopes it would help her to relax. Polly had another reason for signing up to it, she believed her biological mother once lived at Lakeside House in the Lake District where the retreat was being held, and she wanted to find out what she could about her biological parents. The couple who run the retreat appear to have problems, receiving threatening letters, and the other guests all appear to have their own secrets. Some of Pollys art work is vandalised, and it seems as if someone is trying to scare her. Polly wonders if the stalker has actually followed her to the retreat, or is it one of the other guests who has taken a dislike to her, or something to do with the letters the hosts are receiving. The weather turns nasty, the roads are flooded so everyone is trapped at the retreat. Then one of the guests goes missing.
This is an excellent psychological thriller, it kept me turning the pages as I couldn't put it down. A really great read.

Six strangers, from all walks of life, are staying at the newly refurbished Lakeside House in the heart of the Lake District for an art retreat. But each person has a secret and are there for their own reasons, not because of art.

This story followed a few of the characters, including the couple who owned the house. We mostly follow Poppy, a woman in her 20s who is fleeing a stalker and searching for her birth family. Her peaceful break quickly takes a sinister turn when strange things start happening. The book is filled with plenty of suspense and lots of twists, some I figured out, but others that caught me off guard. It was fast-paced, and I couldn't get enough of it once I started.

This had me totally hooked and drawn in from the very first page. This is a real page turner with so many twists and turns. Written across different timelines the main characters are Polly, Esme and Tara. I found myself questioning if all the characters were who they said they were or not. I found this really easy to follow and liked how it had a definite ending. Absolutely brilliant and would highly recommend. Thanks to Boldwood Books and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

My first Amanda Brittany novel but definitely not my last. This was a bit of a slow burn to me. Lots of great characters that kept me flipping pages. Secrets, lies and family ties.
Thank you NetGalley, Amanda Brittany and Boldwood Books for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Boldwood books for the opportunity to read an ARC of Now You Are Mine by Amanda Brittany. All opinions are my own.

When Polly signs up for an art retreat in the Lake District, she’s hoping for some peace, a break from the stalker who’s been making her life a nightmare, and maybe even a chance to dig into her past. Lakeside House, the retreat’s setting, is as full of secrets as it is scenic views. The previous owners met a rather grim end, and now the new, stylish owners are receiving some unsettling threats. Polly’s peaceful retreat quickly turns into a thriller—her artwork is being tampered with, her fellow guests are hiding more than just bad brushstrokes, and then one of them just up and disappears.

Now, with all this suspenseful setup, you’d expect a nail-biting read. But for me, this one didn’t quite deliver. The book starts with an intriguing premise, but I spent way too much time in the first half of the book trying to keep the characters straight. Many of them felt more like caricatures than real people, which made it hard to care about what happened to them. The thriller elements felt a bit over-the-top, with a villain who seemed more fit for a melodrama than a psychological suspense novel.

Character development was another sticking point. The characters felt shallow, making it hard to root for anyone, which in turn made the mystery less compelling until about halfway through the book. That said, when the plot finally picked up, I found myself more engaged. There were a few twists that genuinely caught me off guard, and the final act had me flipping pages to see how everything would be wrapped up.

The ending did tie things together, but some of the twists felt a little too far-fetched to fully buy into. Still, it was a fast-paced conclusion, which was a nice change from the slower start.

Overall, Now You Are Mine had its moments and a few surprises, but it didn’t quite meet my expectations in terms of character depth and consistent tension. I’m sure other readers will enjoy the twists and the speedy finish, and I’m grateful for the chance to read it before its release.

A masterful whodunit story. Told from multiple perspectives in the past and present which kept the story moving quickly. The author did a great job connecting everything together in the end. This is a fast page turner and quick read. I thoroughly enjoyed this one!


Thanks to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this arc!

What a great book!! Such a good thriller/mystery! Perfect writing style and that plot twist!! PERFECT!!