A family with two daughters who both have issues. Pregnancy, self-harm, low self esteem. Corinne, a French exchange student arrives in their home. She veers from charming, single-minded and independent to vicious and evil during the course of this book. It leads to tragedy for everybody concerned. Gripping and enjoyable.

Claustrophobic and overlong. This will be a book that will divide opinion. I felt that none of the character' s choices were realistic. Actually, I felt there were no realistic characters in it. This book, to me, seems so smug with its own cleverness, that it's fairly boring!!! I hate leaving a bad review, but this book really was very weak. I would like to apologise to the author, nothing personal but that a great story was submerged by your editor!! I repeat........overlong!!!

Karen Perry has another winner in this psychological thriller that kept me reading into the early hours. A family with two daughters both with complicated hidden issues is bad enough but add to that a French exchange student with an even more complicated character and turmoil ensues resulting in tragedy within both families. An enthralling and gripping read. Fabulous!

Great story and so twisted!! Absolutely gripping all the way through so be prepared to stay up to read it!

Having read this book I can see why my mother never let me take part in the foreign exchange at school. You never know who it is your letting into your house. They watch you, they steal your secrets, they know to much.
Interesting characters have been created by the author Karen Perry. Corinne comes over from France. Abi is pleased as the girl seems to be bringing her daughter Beth out of her shell but is life as rosy as she thinks.
This book is a slow gentle burn. However, don't let that put you off. A fabulous ending with interesting characters.
Many thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the oppurtunity to read this book.

Enjoyable but Stranger wasn’t for me. Didn’t finish.
Three stars for fairness since I didn’t complete this title. Thank you anyway.

This is a story about a Family with secrets ! Set in Dublin, Abi Mark and their two daughters Eva and Beth seem to have it all .Then on a French Exchange Corinne comes to stay and nothing is ever the same again .I found this initially quite a slow read ,over seven hours on my Kindle but the ending was worth it .Many thanks to the Publisher ,the Author and NetGalley for my copy in return for an honest review .

A story about a school exchange, an ordinary opportunity offered to many children but in this case the visiting child is strange, controlling and threatening. She has arrived in a family where her opposite number is at a vulnerable stage and becomes dependent on the visitor. As the story moves on, the 2 families meet with inevitable tensions.
As the lives of the members of the families proceed, opportunities for control, even blackmail develop, many off these allowing the stranger even more control.
This is a story written about a normal domestic phase in the lives of many children but things conspire to reach a devastating conclusion.
Recommended

Firstly I must say that this isn't a book for the faint hearted if you are easily offended by bad language. This is a good psycological thriller, not always an easy read, but had twists and turns that keep you turning the page to find out more.

My thanks to NetGalley and publisher Penguin Michael Joseph UK, for the ARC.

This is a complex thriller - excellent beginning and an explosive ending, however, I'm going to have to admit that by 30% of the way through I felt bored with details of the family involved, wondering if it was all going to actually lead anywhere - yes, for only my second time - I was ready to accept defeat and DNF it. But, I ploughed-on. Sure enough, all the background started to make sense. The story becomes progressively darker and somewhat harrowing as the seemingly unconnected strands of the plot meld together to reveal a terrible family secret.

Abi and Mark Holland, together with Eva (17) and Beth (14) have a good life. Abi is the breadwinner and Mark the stay-at-home dad, although he does some work from home. Mark's sister Melissa had died a few weeks before and left her house only to Beth - which Abi and Mark didn't understand. Following an "incident" at her school a year before, Beth is lonely as her friends dropped away and nobody spoke to her. Eva is looking forward to going to University. It's Easter and the family welcome an exchange student, Corrine, from France. Beth and Corinne become very close - but Abi thinks their relationship isn't too healthy whilst admitting she's glad Beth now has one friend. Insidiously, though, Corinne watches, listens and controls.

When tragedy strikes Corinne's family during the summer when Abi, Mark and Eva join Beth on her return-exchange in France, things go from bad to worse, resulting in Corinne being accommodated with Beth and her family for a half-term's stay.
Then things begin to really fall apart........................

All is relatively well in the Holland family until fifteen year old Beth’s French Exchange student, Corinne, comes to stay. Her parents, Abi and Mark, are pleased to welcome Corrine as Beth has been isolated for about a year since an incident at her school. Beth's best friend Liz and the others in the class have been ignoring or bullying her since. Mark has been the stay at home parent while Abi’s career has gone well but is now Beth is older and their elder daughter, Eva, is about to go to university, he hopeful of picking up some interesting work back in his old industry.

Later in the summer the whole family join Beth in France as guest of Corrine’s family and things start to unravel as a shocking incident happens and secrets from the past come to light. The relationship between Beth and Corrine becomes very intense as Corrine seems to have more and more influence over the lives of those she befriends. Plenty of twists and turns follow with a good paced plot. There were chapters throughout that signalled the end so the reader knows to expect a dramatic outcome. Personally I would have preferred this book to be chronological without these flash forwards interspersed as they lessened the impact of the ending for me. This is a still a great read though.

With thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Michael Joseph UK for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is my first book by Karen Perry and I thoroughly enjoyed it. A good solid psychological thriller that had a few twists in it to keep me reading. It did get a bit slow in the middle but I certainly wasn't expecting the ending. It makes you think as a parent do you really know your child. I recommend this book.

Karen Perry writes well and always with strong family dynamics which tend to go through the mill in her novels.
Stranger is no different. I waited to review this for a few days after finishing the novel, as I'm undecided about it.
There are the usual young girl attracts older, family man storylines and a clever flashback edit which keeps you interested and wondering, as you get deeper into the book. However, the main voice you hear is the mother, in an attempt to impress the fact that you never really know your children, I suppose, and I think this is what distanced me from caring too much.
Yes, there are some clever twists and reveals that mainly come together at the end (although the final act was a bit vague and clumsy when it was finally described), but I felt the daughter around which it was predominantly revolving, was a bit short-changed as a character. A lot happens to this girl and because of the way the timeline is jumbled up, some of the most important and affecting revelations are kept until the end, by which time there is very little book left to fully explore them or come to care more for her. And I wouldn't describe this novel as being in the thriller genre, which would perhaps lend itself to a shallower look at such subject matter.
I was left thinking the book's title should have been Oblivious or Head in the Sand or a combination of very unfortunate events add up to tragedy; Stranger seems to suggest it was no-one's fault but the secretive character to whom it refers.
Take this as a family drama with a few surprises, but don't expect much depth.

Wow, this was my first Karen Perry book and I loved it. I loved the idea of the foreign exchange student as I always thought it would have been great to be one myself but after reading this book I'm not so sure anymore. I did not like Corinne at all, she was a bit creepy in how she interacted with the adults and other characters in the book. My heart went out to Beth as I wanted to know what was wrong with her, what happened before...
As the story progresses we find out more about all the characters. I enjoyed the book as well as the ending. Great writing by Karen Perry.

Another magnificent story by Karen Perry. I've been waiting on a new one from this author team and I was not disappointed. Domestic small town crime thriller. Brilliant xx

This is a gripping and well paced thriller.

Beth and Eva are sisters, but they are very different. Beth is plain, withdrawn and has difficulties making friends, whereas Eva is pretty and clever with a bright future ahead of her. When Corinne, a French exchange student arrives, Beth finds a friend and confidante for the first time in years. But is this friendship all it seems?

From the opening chapters we know that someone ends up dead, but who? The story is well crafted and while some parts were a little obvious, the reveal at the end was very well done. I didn’t always like the characters but I felt they acted appropriately and they were realistic and well rounded.

I would definitely read further books by this author! Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for my copy of this book.

Just how well do we know our house guests? They are privy to our most intimate experiences and might use that later... A scary and intense thriller!

This could have been a good thriller spoiled by too much bad language . Sadly I didn't finish it . This one isn't for me

I enjoyed this psychological thriller overall but it was a little slow and a tad drawn out in places. Having said this it had a remarkable last few chapters that were certainly worth the wait.

A good thriller, had me on edge and kept the mystery going.
A lot of bad language but I didn’t mind too much.
Enjoyable.