It's been years since Nadja Kulka was convicted of a cruel crime. After being released from prison, she's wanted nothing more than to live a normal life: a nice flat, a steady job, even a few friends. But when one of those friends, Laura von Hoven - free-spirited beauty and wife of Nadja's boss - kills her lover and begs Nadja for her help, Nadja can't seem to be able to refuse. The two women make for a remote house in the woods, the perfect place to bury a body. But their plan quickly falls apart and Nadja finds herself outplayed, a pawn in a bizarre game in which she is both the perfect victim and the perfect murderer.

I love complex thrillers, convoluted plots and mind-bending stories but somehow it took until around halfway for this story to start making any sense. Maybe I missed the point of it all but it seemed a very complicated way of saying not very much. The writing was, again, excellent and the second half of the book had some good moments, This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

It's been years since Nadja Kulka was convicted of a cruel crime. After being released from prison, she's wanted nothing more than to live a normal life: nice flat, steady job, even a few friends. But when one of those friends, Laura Van Hoven - free spirited beauty and wife of Nadja's boss - kills her lover and begs Nadja for help, Nadja can't seem to refuse.

A story of love, guilt, jealousy and power. Nadja helps Laura bury her lovers body by a remote cottage by the woods.

Told from multiple points of view and in different flashbacks, it can be a bit confusing until the story all comes together. We are taken on a complex and suspenseful journey that's filled with twists. I love the authors writing style. The characters are intriguing and the plotline is thrilling. We are drip fed snippets of information but it just keeps you turning the pages to find out more. There is quite a bit of flashbacks, some of it in the form of letters that had been written but not sent. Stick with this book, I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

I would like to thank #NetGalley #QuercusBooks and the author #RomyHussmann for my ARC of #Sleepless in exchange for an honest review.

I was excited to read this as I enjoyed the author's previous book but I initially found it hard going. There seemed to be random people and their stories that didn’t seem to fit and I was thinking about stopping reading. I did persevere however and I’m glad that I did as the second half was different altogether as the pieces came together. An interesting read of you can hang in there.

I really loved Hausmann's previous book DEAR CHILD, but unfortunately I am not connecting to this story. I started and stopped a few times and found it confusing, with characters I found unlikeable and whose motivations I struggled to understand. I am conceding that the book just isn't for me at this time. That's not to say that I won't love it at a later time - this happens sometimes because I am very much a mood reader. Thank you for the opportunity to read it, and apologies for not being able to provide a review at this time.

I really, really loved the author’s previous book, Dear Child, but this one - not so much.

I love complex thrillers, convoluted plots and mind bending stories but somehow it took until around halfway for this story to start making any sense. Nadja Kulka, originally from Poland, had a pretty terrible start to life. Her mother made a living entertaining ‘gentleman callers’ and was very neglectful of her children. Nadja pretty much brought up her younger brother, Janek. But when she was 15 her mother was brutally killed. Despite claiming her innocence Nadja was convicted of the crime and spent 7 years in youth detention. Now she lives a small life, sees a therapist regularly and suffers panic attacks. So when one of the few people who have been nice to her, Laura van Hoven, the wife of her boss Gero van Hoven, asks for her help she readily agrees. That was a big mistake and she gets sucked into an insane conspiracy to cover up a murder whereby her own life hangs in the balance.

None of the characters were likeable. Even Nadja, the fall guy, seemed to be complicit in her own downfall. She was so spineless and weak - until finally she wasn’t. The other characters were various shades of awful. The theme of this book was all about guilt and its terrible burden and the lengths people go to and so on but I have to say it was all very messy. There was a whole other plot thread about a married guy having an affair with a young woman who died in a forest that really had no bearing on the story and could have been left out. The guy, Paul, had a small part to play later in the story but it could have been played by anyone.

Maybe I missed the point of it all but it seemed a very complicated way of saying not very much. The writing was, again, excellent and the second half of the book had some good moments, for that I am giving the book three stars. I will be interested to see what Hausmann comes up with next but this book was a bit of a miss for me. I received an advance review copy for free from Netgalley and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

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<p>I absolutely adore this author and was extremely excited about a new book coming this year. It hasn’t disappointed and has been completely worth the wait. </p>
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<p>This has not been the easy read as it takes the development of the plot for things to start coming together. This however, has been a superb read which has kept me intrigued from the beginning. </p>
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<p>The characters in this one are particularly easy to dislike. Each manipulative in their own way. However, this is so well written that you are completely pulled into the pages and unable to put this one down. </p>
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<p>This is a novel which is made up of twist after twist. It is completely unique to anything I’ve read previously and i have really enjoyed the plot unfolding. </p>
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<p>I really have to praise Haussmann because this is a genius novel and the way it’s written is so clever. You cannot help but be completely confused until it all starts to weave together. This is a stunning journey the reader is taken on throughout this completely addictive crime thriller. </p>
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<p>This really is a book unlike anything I’ve read previously. </p>
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<p>I have loved this read, it’s most definitely a five star read. Definitely one for the TBR. </p>
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Thank you Net Galley for the opportunity to read this book.

Laura killed her lover, she seeks help from an old friend with a troubled past to help her with her situation. The book tells different stories over time that come together through the book. I found the stories a little disjointed at times and had to try and figure out whose story it was. Despite this, I found the novel a page turner and kept me wondering what will happen next, whilst evoking empathy for the pain character.

Apologies,I started this book but at 20% it is a DNF,I found it hard to get into and so decided it is not for me
Again apologies for this

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC in return for an honest review.

Sleepless by Romy Hausmann is based around Nadia, an anxious woman who receives a phonecall from her friend Laura begging for help after she kills her lover.

I liked the premise behind this book and it had a lot of twists and turns, however I found all characters unlikable and the story hard to follow. The timelines jumped around quite a bit and there were several stories intertwined into one, I found myself lost and a little confused at times.

I still enjoyed the book, but not as much as I could have given the jumping around in times/storylines.

Laura killed her lover. Now, panicked, she begs her friend Nadia for help. Together, they come up with a plan for how to get rid of the body.
But their plan soon takes an unexpected turn.

Having heard a lot of good things about the author's first novel (I have it on my tbr pile but haven't read it yet), I requested this book blindly, without reading the blurb.
Sadly, I didn't find this book to my liking.
I struggled to get into it at first. The story did pick up later, enough to keep me reading ( I never leave books unfinished - if I did, I would probably have ditched it at about 20% ).
I admit the plot was good, and the ending was one I would never have guessed, but I found the execution chaotic and confusing.
Overall, I didn't love this book but neither did I hate it, hence the 2 stars.

After a bit of a confusing beginning, I ended up enjoying #Sleepless The plot kept me interested enough to keep going and see how all the pieces fit into place. I didn’t really understand Nadja’s motives for helping to such an involved level and think the explanation being a little earlier in the story may have helped. Nadja’s past was interesting and I really wanted her to come out on top. It’s a book that I’ve thought of again and again in the days since I read it (in a good way!).

I had read the author’s previous book ‘Dear Child’ and I would read more by them based on both books.

Thanks to #NetGalley and the publisher for my free advance copy in return for an unbiased review.

This is a story with multiple stories within it, and as the book progresses, they slowly come together. I felt really disconnected from the story for most of it, only really getting into it in the last quarter. Most of the characters are unlikeable or manipulative (or both) - at times, the only thing that kept me reading was that I wanted to know what happened to them. I thought the writing & the translation was wonderful, but the story itself was confusing.

4.5★s
Sleepless is the fourth novel by best-selling German author, Romy Hausmann. It is translated from the German by Jamie Bulloch. Late one Friday afternoon, at the offices of high-profile Berlin legal firm Abramczyk and van Hoven, Nadja Kulka gets a visit from her boss’s wife. Laura van Hoven is the closest to a friend that Nadja has ever had, so she won’t ignore a request for help.

The body on her living room floor is a shock, but Laura is the mother of four-ear-old Vivi, so Nadja agrees: she can’t go to prison. And Laura is terrified of how her husband, Gero will react, so disposing of her lover’s body quickly is imperative.

Nadja had definitely not been expecting, the next morning, to be driving a Land Rover with a dead body in the boot to a remote cottage in the woods near Spreewald. A combination of nervous tension and PTSD flashbacks mean her journey is not quite as low-profile as she had intended, but when she arrives at the cottage, things get really bizarre.

There are several narrative strands: the present day (2019) is from Nadja’s perspective; from 2014 onwards is told from multiple perspectives; and extracts from unsent/unwritten letters to a sibling, written for the purpose of therapy, fill in some back story. Initially, the disconnect between these three strands make the whole story quite disjointed, but eventually there is some cohesion.

Hausmann has created a tightly plotted tale in which the reader will be constantly second-guessing initial suspicions as yet another pertinent fact is drip-fed into the narrative, although this technique does begin to wear a little thin by the final reveal. There are so many twists that the reader might want to pre-book a chiropractic visit.

Nadja might be an unreliable narrator and, despite her past, she seems to be readily influenced and less circumspect about trusting others than she ought to; certainly, her friendship with Laura borders on toxic. The behaviour of several of these high-profile lawyers towards their clients is questionable, at best. Unquestionably a page-turner.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Quercus Editions

I found this book really quite hard to get into. The characters didn't really gel for me and really just left me annoyed with them for their obvious mistakes! I perhaps needed to read it in much bigger chunks and with less distractions around me to really get into it as once the many strands began to come together it became much easier to follow.
One I may try again when I have more time to commit to it

Thank you to Netgalley for the loan of this book.
I read this book in one sitting and thoroughly enjoyed it. It did sometimes get confusing, but it all binds together in the end. This is the first book I've read by this author, and I intend to read her first book, along with her next offering, as I enjoyed the ease in which she writes. Overall a good solid thriller

After enjoying her previous book 'Dear Child' I was keen to read this one.
It turned out to be a strangely disturbing thriller but I found it hard to follow the different characters and time zones. I persevered and glad I did but it was slightly hard going.
Excellent writing style and it might be worth a second read through
Thanks to#NetGalley for the advance copy in return for an honest review #sleepless

Sleepless, Romy Hausmann

Review from Jeannie Zelos book reviews

Genre: Mystery & Thrillers

I loved Dear Child, so was eager to get into this but....while the writing is excellent the story just failed for me. I did put aside a few times, restarted and managed to finish, purely because I'd got the the point where I had to know how it played out but I really didn't enjoy this read.
I found the tale confusing, different time lines, characters that seemed to have two very different stories. Eventually they began to join but I found the co-incidences of how characters were connected too much to believe, and I do believe a lot in random chance but this just didn't feel right. Then there's Laura, supposed to be Nadja's friend according to the description but actually they've not spoken for a couple of years at least.
I felt for Nadja, horrific childhood, but really didn't understand her willingness to help Laura. All of the characters were selfish to some degree, Laura and her husband very much so. Nelly was probably the most likable, poor little deluded girl, seduced by a practiced man....even she put out of her mind what her head was telling her.
I finished it, but it was a struggle, and even now I'm still confused about certain aspects, why, how, when of certain characters and events...

Stars: Two, I didn't hate this book, I was just disappointed in the story, but as usual others adore this read. We all look for different things, this just wasn't a fit for me.

ARC supplied by Netgally and publishers

This was a good read, but it took me many tries to actually get into it, because it was slow beginning. Almost put it to the side and DNF, but glad I was able to finally get into it and finish. It’s a deliciously dark, beautifully written thrill ride, once you get past the slower beginning! It becomes unputdownable and twisty to the point of being dizzying! I would definitely highly recommend, but warn them to give the a chance to let the slower beginning pass! I’m sure they’ll enjoy this dark, disturbing, chilling read!

I really enjoyed Romy Hausmann first book Dear Child. So, I was looking forward to reading Sleepless.
Nadja is troubled by her life as a teenager when she committed a a terrible crime.
She is asked by her friend Laura for help and Ger Van Hoven who owns a law firm. But, then she does they try and frame her for a murder that they committed.
I thank Quercus for a copy of Dear Child. But for me with the different characters and two timelines, it just totally confused me. It wasn’t a bad book I just couldn’t decide what storyline connected to which character. Only the last few chapters in the book it suddenly comes clear. Three stars from me.

There are 2 stories being told, firstly Nadja, who is a troubled soul who was accused of committing a crime in her mid teens. Snap shots are also told through her letters she writes to her younger brother. Nadja is then brought into another crime where her friend / bosses wife has asked for assistance but then tries to frame her for this crime.
Meanwhile there is the tale of Nellie and her lover who is accused of murdering Nellie.
The two stories eventually start to tie up but I found the plot quite muddle-some and disjointed for a lot of the book. It all falls into place by the end so is worth persevering with.