This was certainly a page turner. The characters were well developed however I kept waiting for the surprise. Had great potential but fell a little short.

Now this was an amazing thriller! It sucks you in from the very beginning and it is one that's hard to stop! Mirand Rijks did an excellent job writing this novel. I loved the main character and thought she tied in all of the characters very well.

Laura's obituary and death show up on Facebook and she reads it! What a way to start a day! That got me from the beginning. She knows she's not dead, so why is someone out there saying that she is? Her daughter reads it too and calls freaking out. She thinks maybe it is a mistake until strange things begin to happen. I felt so sorry for her because she became so helpless. Someone kept messing with her life and made her feel crazy. She didn't want to go to the police because what would she say....someone is trying to say I'm dead? She meets a new guy in the process, but then becomes suspicious. Is he in on it, but why would he be? He seems to really like her! He's so perfect, how could he be a psychopath? Her friends become suspects too as circumstances become very fishy when they're around. She suspects everyone but her daughter, who is off at college and worried sick. Her ex-husband even starts to worry about her. Who is behind all the crazy things happening to her? Is she losing her mind? Are they trying to make the obituary a reality? The ending will shock you when the psychopath who wants her dead is revealed in this thriller.

I can't really say a lot about this book because, honestly, it didn't make such a big impression on me.

"I Want You Gone" won me over with the premise of a different way of stalking, but lost me because of its predictability. I've read my fair share of mystery thrillers in this life and I could see the culprit from a mile away. Not only that, but I thought the protagonist - can't really remember her name, ugh - acted a little childish most of the time for a 40-something woman. And the love interest just creeped me out, for no particular reason. He was just... there a lot, in a way that I sometimes considered to be invasive.

This is, however, a book I can clearly see my mom loving - especially because the protagonist is also a mom, suffering a little bit with empty nest syndrome, and I think that might be something that she could relate to. With Mother's Day right around the corner it might be a good idea to keep this title in mind.

Laura is finally getting her life back on track after the death of her sister in a road incident and a failed marriage. Things are looking good with a promising career in real estate and the possibility of a new relationship. Her world starts to fall apart after a series of incidents. First there is a Facebook post notifying her friends she has died and shortly after her death certificate is received by post. The final straw is when her work ethics are questioned and her employer forces her to take leave. Laura doesn’t know who to trust and feels the police don’t take her seriously. Out of desperation she decides to start her own investigation. When the perpetrator threatens the life of someone very close to her she will do anything to stop them.
The characters include Laura’s daughter Mel studying at University, her ex-husband Ian, her best friend Anna and Ben who she has just started dating. Which one of them will you suspect?
This storyline had a familiar feel to it and I was fairly certain who was behind it all. Despite this I felt the author did a superb job of making the storyline that little bit different, holding my interest and wanting to know more. All I can say is this was a fantastic read and recommend it to all those who love a very good psychological thriller. I hope this author has another in the works and full marks for this one!
Note this book was originally published as The Obituary in 2018.
A big thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a free digital copy of the book in return for an honest review.

This book started off quite well but Laura was such an unpleasant character that I couldn't read any more. Not for me.

This was a read I couldn’t put down. Even though you are able to figure out who did it the author was able to keep the reader guessing. Well written

I received this ARC from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review. What a creepy thriller. This storyline had a few suspects but keeps you guessing until the end. The incredible things that happen throughout this book keep you turning pages until you finish.

Thank you for the chance to read this, I highly recommend this book!

I Want You Gone by Miranda Rijks touts itself as a psychological thriller with a nerve-shredding twist. It shredded my nerves alright, but only out of sheer frustration.

The first third of the story was pretty interesting. Despite the multitude of characters to keep up with, I liked the way the author drew in various story threads to set up the web. The main character, Laura, seemed like an average woman. She was like someone I might know from work, trying to focus on her career after an unexpected divorce. When the first unusual activity started happening, it seemed like it could have been overlooked as a mistake or even a strange coincidence. As the weird events piled up, however, you'd think she would have contacted law enforcement. If I ticked off on my fingers all the crazy things that happened to Laura, I'd quickly run out of hands. The story isn't bad. It's just tedious. We're exposed to every single thought that runs through Laura's dull mind. It wasn't at all difficult to figure out who was at the root of the problem. All I really wanted to know was the WHY, and it took forever to get there.

I would have loved an epilogue at the end of the book just to see what happened next. There were a lot of areas in Laura's life that were wrecked as a result of her trials, and the story needed some closure in that respect.

I’m not totally sure how to start this review.

Firstly... I hated Laura, the main character. She was just dumb. She’s the one you shout at in a horror movie for running upstairs rather than outbid the front door. But I didn’t care enough about her to shout at her stupidity.

The villain was clear from the start. I’d figured most of it out by about page 50-75. Sure there were some red herrings but for me there was no wondering, no chase. It was just so obvious.

That’s not to say it was a bad book though. Granted there were some glaring errors and the ending was a little disappointing. But the ideas were good. The actual plot wasn’t too shabby. In fact around the middle of the book I got excited that things seemed to be moving forward clearly!

I really wanted to like this book and I’m not sure I can say I did. I will read more by this author however
; I wasn’t totally put off her writing!

I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions in this review are my own.

Laura is finally dating an amazing man, until she finds out she is dead. What? Her daughter calls her in tears because someone posted on facebook that she was dead. WHO would do this and why? This story takes the reader on one twist after another. Are friends really friends? Is it someone she loves, someone she knows or a complete stranger? Read this to find out. Thank you NetGalley.

I finished this book rather quickly. I did find it easy to read. I'm not one who always looks for books to "resonate with my soul." Sometimes I just want a book that is easy to read/follow, with fairly quick plot development. I just want something entertaining, that is purely fiction. This book may not have been one of the best written (some words were used A LOT), but it kept my attention and I liked it overall.

Laura is a divorced middle aged woman, striving for self-sufficiency, when her daughter calls her in a panic, saying that her Facebook page says that she’s dead. Soon after, an ominous death notice is in the paper, saying that she died in a car accident. Clearly someone is out to get her, but who?

Well that’s a question that Laura doesn't seem even mildly curious about for way too long in this book. She’s too caught up in the doctor she’s been on a handful of dates with and her daughters trepidation about being away at college.

I debated how to rate this because the bare bones of the story could’ve been built into a decent novel, but I hated Laura so much that I can’t give this more than a 2. She’s such an abject moron, it almost hurt to read. Always shrieking and screeching about whatever nonsense filled her head. “‘[idiotic accusations]’”, I screech. “I let out a screech of frustration.” Over and over. What is it about screeching that enamors this author so? Jumping to conclusions about everyone and missing the flashing red light of a warning sign coming from the obvious culprit. I don’t enjoy being forced go live inside the head of stupid characters, and Laura is the epitome of a stupid character.

Laura is shocked to read her own obituary, clearly she's alive, feeling low after an ugly divorce, but still, undoubtedly alive. Suddenly she's not sure who she can trust, her boyfriend, colleagues, friends, family? Someone is gaslighting her big time, but can she find out who it is before they succeed in driving her mad?

The author wrote a thriller that started with a bang and just kept going! The twists kept coming, so I couldn't put it down. I cannot wait to read more from this author!

I have a shelve labelled 'romantic suspense' and a shelve labelled 'thriller'. I think I have to make a new shelve for books like this one, that fall between the two categories.
It is, in my view, not a real thriller because from the start, it is obvious that someone has it in for Laura and of course it cannot be her new lover. Laura, while working hard as a successfull realtor, is still moping about her recent divorce. She is even still using her ex-husbands last name! It has a more or less romantic angle because Laura just met a man she's really starting to like. Of course the real culprit is trying its best to put the blame on the new boyfriend.
Three stars because the whole plot is so predictable, and none of the characters are very well cut out. But... I've read the book in one day and I spent a couple of nice hours with it.

Thanks to Netgalley and Inkubator books for this digital review copy.

I Want You Gone by Miranda Rijks is a mystery/thriller which I received as an Advance Reader Copy (ARC) from @NetGalley in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

SYNOPSIS | Laura Swallow receives an unsettling phone call from her teenage daughter Mel (who has just moved away from home and started University) as she has seen a status on her mum's Facebook page announcing her death... except Laura isn't dead. Instead Laura brushes this off as a mistake, but then she finds an obituary in the local newspaper and a number of other unpleasant things start to happen to her. Laura begins to suspect everyone around her (including her new lover, ex-husband and childhood acquaintance from school) as she tries to uncover the culprit.

MY THOUGHTS | I was intrigued by the synopsis, but sadly I didn't enjoy the execution. I felt like Laura placed the blame on every single male in her life when I felt it was actually quite obvious who the real culprit was. This also had one of my most hated reveals which is where the "bad person" does an evil villainous monologue explaining why they feel the way that they do and why they have done what they have done... no thanks.

An ordinary woman with an ordinary life suddenly starts to have small things go wrong that build and build to a point where her life is ruined.
I felt every emotion described by the author as if these awful events were happening to me, because it all played out in perfectly timed stages which allowed the emotions to sweep through before the next bombshell. A real cracker of a book.

It doesn't take a lot for me to like a character in a book. But when said character behaves so bizarrely, panicking at the drop of a hat, no commonsense prevailing, no smart questions asked, it gets on my nerves, a little. Laura Swallow has had the misfortune of having every nasty life tragedy thrown her way.
Close sibling dies.
Husband leaves for another woman.
Husband finds another younger woman to start a family with.
Assaulted.
And many more to discover through the course of the book.
The first parts of this book was good, there was a really good storyline there. The characters were interesting. I like how the book opened. The starting parts of the book were where I liked Laura. She was emotionally damaged but she was out there taking on life and everything thrown her way. But as the story progresses she becomes a hyperventilating sad sorry mess. Midway through the book, it got pretty obvious who was the psycho out to get Laura. What's striking is that not once throughout the course of the book did Laura make an attempt to report the strange happenings in her life until she was practically forced to. I'm not a fan of damsels in distress. Also the ending was ridiculous in my opinion. I wouldn't go so far as to call this a psychological thriller.
Thanks to Netgalley, Miranda Rijks & Inkubator books for an arc.

I enjoyed reading I Want You Gone by Miranda Rijks. It is a quick read and definitely keeps you engaged. The main character, Laura, is extremely frustrating, and I figured out the culprit the first time they were introduced to the reader. Despite this, I still wanted to know what happened next.