Annabel Kantaria

4.5 stars.

I Know You by Annabel Kantaria is an absolutely riveting psychological thriller.

Taylor Watson and her husband Jake have recently relocated from California to the London suburbs. Jake travels frequently for work which leaves his pregnant wife lonely and at loose ends. In an effort to make friends, Taylor joins a walking club where she meets slightly offbeat Simon and another pregnant woman, Anna Jones. In addition to her new friendship with Anna, Taylor has also recently joined a book club formed by her neighbor Sarah. The only other member of their book club, Caroline Hughes-Smith, is a bit distant while Sarah is open and maybe a little too friendly especially when it comes to Jake. Since Anna's husband is based in Qatar, she and Taylor support one another as their pregnancies progress. Unbeknownst to Taylor, someone is keeping very close tabs on her social media posts and in fact, knows intimate details of her life and her marriage. What possible reason could this cyberstalker be watching Taylor so intently?

Taylor is a little desperate to make a connection with someone in her new life. Her marriage hit a rough spot right before their move to London and she cannot shake off her suspicions about Jake as he travels for business. So she is quite relieved when she and Anna become such close friends. Taylor also surprisingly enjoys spending time with Simon even though she suspects his interest in her goes beyond friendship. She is happy with her growing social circle, but Taylor begins to distrust Sarah after she is a little too touchy feely with Jake. Caroline holds everyone at arms' length, but Taylor is heartbroken on her friend's behalf after she confides a heart wrenching secret. But Anna is the person whom Taylor trusts implicitly and relies upon without reservation.

Interspersed with events playing out in the present are chapters written from an unknown person's perspective. These entries are almost benign at first but it soon becomes clear that their enmity toward Taylor is becoming more and more vicious. With plenty of new people in her life, could one of them be the one who harbors such animosity towards her?

I Know You is a mesmerizing and suspenseful thriller with a topical storyline that will leave readers uneasily reflecting on their social media posts. Taylor's heavy foreshadowing that something goes terribly wrong in her life keeps the pages turning at a blistering pace. The fast moving storyline is engrossing and there is a vast suspect pool which makes it impossible to know for certain who has it in for Taylor. With a series of utterly jaw-dropping twists and turns, Annabel Kantaria brings this thriller to a dramatic conclusion. I thoroughly enjoyed and highly recommend this suspense-laden novel to readers of the genre.
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This is a good example of a book that has unlikable characters and a creepy storyline but yet you have this compelling need to find out what is going to happen next and can't flip the pages fast enough to get answers. Even though it has some flaws here and there at the end of the day it accomplishes what I assume was one of the goals of the author, which is to entertain the reader.

Taylor Watson has recently moved with her husband from California to the London suburbs and is feeling lonely and is desperate to make some friends. Even though she is pregnant, she isn't interested in joining a parenting group and instead signs herself up for a walking group as well as a book club. But as she gets to know new people, Taylor can't help but feel more and more uneasy. Something bad is about to go down, but what?

This book was a nice mix of a classic 'everyone is a suspect" plot but also had this modern feel to it with the way the author incorporated social media into the story. Now even though the book held my interest, I wouldn't say the story is jammed pack with twists and turns. That's not to say I was able to guess everything correctly but other than one minor detail, I don't think anything came out of nowhere especially if you read books in this genre quite often. I did strongly dislike the big final dramatic scene as it just felt lame and not very original. But overall, I did have a good time reading this one and if you like books in this genre, you might consider checking this one out.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free advance digital copy in exchange for an honest review.… (más)