This book makes you have to suspend your belief a little but the way it is done was amazing! I was expecting a little more typical thriller but realized quickly it was darker than i imagined! The author really makes you care about the characters like they are apart of your life. I was dying to know what happened to them and how the story would play out so I finished the book in one sitting. !

Really enjoyed this book! Fast paced and had me gripped from the start. Highly recommend - NetGalley reviewer

I want to start off by saying thank you for the opportunity to read and review this book, it was a very good read easy to follow along with storyline and characters. This was a new author for me but I very much enjoyed it, thank you for the opportunity and I look forward to reading more by this author again. I highly recommend this book to everybody.

This is a macabre, twisted story of what should have been a happy ending. Flora and Neil, a decent hardworking couple adopt a child Beckie. The birth parents are violent, crazy, and unstable and the child was rightly taken from them for her own safety. Happy ending? Oh no, not going to happen. That’s just the beginning of fresh abuse as they want Beckie back and will stop at nothing to make that happen. Really fast-paced, twists and turns and a rush to read how it all turns out!

Thank you NetGalley and Inkubator Book for this eARC. This was the story of a little girl born into a low-class, dysfunctional, criminal family called the Johnsons. She gets taken away by Social Services and gets placed into a new family. The Johnsons cannot go anywhere near Beckie, the adopted little girl. But Lorraine, the grand-mother, the brain of the family ends up retracing Beckie and her adopted parents and that’s when the story gets intense.

As intense the plot was, it was a nightmare to read through the Johnson scenes and that Scottish slang. I literally had to read out loud in order to understand the dialogues. Beside that, the plot was strong, well thought out and the characters complex. My favorite character was by far Beckie, a little toddler with a doomed future but, thanks to her adopted parents Neil and Flora, her maturity, her intelligence, and her sense of observation, she turned into a bright young lady. Definitely the star of the book!

If you like psychological thrillers, this is a book I recommend.

Flora & Neil have always wanted a family & not being able to have one themselves they decide to adopt & it is love at first sight when they meet two year old Beckie. She has been taken from her home because of neglect & abuse & they want to do all they can to make sure she feels loved and safe. However, the Johnstons are not going to give her up easily. As far as they are concerned Beckie has been stolen from them, they want her back & are quite prepared to do anything to achieve that end.

The safe, middle-class family Beckie lives with could not be more different than the chaotic hard drinking, violent . foul mouthed family she was taken from. Flora & Neil will go to any lengths to keep her safe.

This was a fast paced thriller. Personally I didn't find the language of the Johnsons a barrier to enjoyment, but then I live in Scotland & could imagine it might be a bit trickier for those unexposed to the rich dialect! All in all an enjoyable read. Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this book.

Suspenseful, edgy, thrilling and a little creepy in places this book kept me on my toes!

The story follows Beckie (or Bekki depending on who is telling the story), a young child, who has been taken from her birth family who have a history of criminal and violent behaviour and who is adopted by Flora and Neil who appear to be the perfect parents. Her birth family, particularly her grandmother, are desperate to get her back and goes to some amazing lengths to get what she wants.

The story is told from both sides, from Bekki’s Grandmother, Lorraine who plots to get her back through to Flora, Beckie’s adoptive mother and her panic and need to protect Becki. Both fiercely love this little girl.

There are plenty of twists and turns and, in some ways, you want to hate Lorraine and her family, but their commitment is admirable, and you can’t help but feel for them as well. There is a lot of Scottish slang which was initially difficult to read but became natural very quickly (there is also a glossary at the back if you need it but I didn’t find that I did!)

A great ending!

Hooked right until the end. As soon as you start this book the author I have you under their spell and you will not be able to put this down.

This book was very confusing and I couldn't understand the slang. I didn't finish it. This one isn't for me , sorry !

What a great book. Would definitely recommend to it others I no. Great work will look out for this author again

Watch Over Me was a complete surprise. I was expecting a simple crime story and what I got instead was a dark, twisty, psychological thriller. Yes, I know, it says psychological thriller right there on the cover but we know that what we readers think of a "thriller" is not always what publisher's consider "thrilling." Let me tell you, Watch Over me was suspenseful, edgy, creepy and, yes, thrilling!

A child, Beckie, is being torn between families. One is educated and wealthy and desperately searching for a child they can love and call their own. The other is, well, there aren't a lot of kind descriptors for this family. They are poverty stricken, unhealthy, morally bankrupt and Beckie's mother is in jail for murder. It doesn't sound like the ideal situation, does it? The government didn't think so and they removed Beckie from the squalor and "gave" her to Flora, a mother with so much love to give. However, Beckie's family loved her. Her grandmother, a foul-mouthed obese woman, really did love Beckie. So, when is it okay to take a child from one family and give it to another. That is the question at the heart of this book as Beckie's biological family goes to amazing lengths to get Beckie back. Their actions had me wondering if they were truly as ignorant as they appeared.

BUT - and that is a huge but right there - BUT, the ending and the twist is what will leave you sitting in your seat with your mouth hanging open. I generally do not like twists at the end and only appreciate them when they are amazing. Let me tell you, IT IS. I highly recommend Watch Over Me which grip you tight from start to the startling conclusion.

This is the story of a young girl, Beckie or Bekki (depending on who’s telling the story), and her adoption, against the wishes of her maternal grandparents, the Johnsons, who we first meet in the Glasgow Sheriff’s Court during the adoption process. The potential parents are in a cottage in the Scottish countryside, immediately highlighting a social divide.

I got in to the book straightaway, though because of the scene setting, it could be considered a “slow burner”. It starts with an undated prologue highlighting a very significant and traumatic event but as no names are used, we’re left wondering who is who and how it fits in.

The story then switches between being told by Beckies adoptive mum, Flora and her maternal grandmother, Lorraine. The differences in their lives is highlighted by the different styles of writing - Flora comes across as privileged and middle class, trying to give her adoptive daughter the best upbringing she can after her unsettling start in life whilst Lorraine and the family have a criminal background and the sections Lorraine narrates incorporate some strong Scottish slang. However, Lorraine as the matriarch is clever and manipulating and you begin to wonder who is telling the truth.

It’s a story with a few twists and turns, some coming totally out of the blue and with others, I had an idea but wasn’t totally correct, making it a perfect psychological thriller for me. I found it believable and totally absorbing, reading it in a couple of days. I even ended up having some sympathy for the mainly despicable Johnsons but only as they railed against a system biased against the social underclass.

This is the first Jane Renshaw book I’ve read and I’ll definitely be looking out for more. I’m happy to recommend the book but with a couple of provisos: there’s a lot of Scottish slang which I initially found irritating. With hindsight, I should probably have read the glossary of slang terms first but what I ended up doing was “bookmarking” the glossary so I could refer to it whilst reading until the words were familiar.
Secondly, in the chapters concerning the Johnsons, the language is very strong. If you aren’t happy with swearing in your books, this isn’t for you.

If, on the other hand, you want to read a story which I believe is a sad indictment of the society in which we live in, where social workers are damned if they do and damned if the don’t, where money and privilege still carry weight and the desperate attempts people will go to to rectify those perceived wrong doings against them, then this is definitely for you.

Gillygill @SunnyBookReviewers received a free book for review.

Sometimes, having a lot of twists that the reader doesn't see coming, isn't always a good thing. As readers, we should be able to connect the dots, pick up the little breadcrumb clues.

This book was so good and had me hooked from the very beginning! It was full of twists and turns as well as being a very quick read. I highly recommend it to all.

This is the sort of book that grabs you at the beginning and doesn't let go. Somewhat confusing at times, but read on and all becomes clear. Be sure to check out the meaning of the Scottish patois in order to more easily understand the plot.

Overall, this book was good. The plot keeps moving and holds your interest throughout. There were several twists that I did NOT see coming, and I can’t stop thinking about them! One thing I struggled with is some of the intersections of stories weren’t well-explained as then happened, and it was pretty confusing to try and piece together. They mostly all come together by the end, but this made it a bit hard to read without having to try hard to decipher what was going on. Other than that, I very much enjoyed the book and would read Jane Renshaw again.

This book was filled with twists and turns that have a big payoff in the end for the reader! I thoroughly enjoyed this, as I couldn't put it down due to wanting to know what would happen next. The author grabbed me from the first page and didn't let me go until long after I finished the book. This is what a mystery/thriller should be!

Thank you NetGalley as well as Jane Renshaw for giving me the ARC to this book, Watch Over Me.

This book was not an easy read for me. It did have the twists and turns in the book but it was not clear and I did not find that I was invested in any of the characters in the book. I almost did not finish the book but out of guilt..( which I am working on not having anymore about finishing a book), I completed and it turned out to not be as slow as in the beginning and more interesting. I am trying to be vague because an avid thriller reader will get spoilers very easily. I can say it was not the top of the thriller list but would work for a beginning thriller reader.

This book was very different for me. I liked it but following the story at times was a bit tricky. I will say that it was a take on adoption that was interesting. I had a hard time connecting and liking some of the characters but the twists and turns kept my interest alive. I will read another book by this author for sure.

I was excited to read an advanced reader’s copy of Watch Over Me, but never connected to the book. I tried so many times to get in to it, but could barely get though. The story had so much potential (reading about adoption fascinated me), but felt like it missed the mark