"I'd always thought that women who stayed in bad relationships must be foolish. After all, there had to be a moment, a realization that things had taken a wrong turn and you were suddenly afraid to be with your partner--and surely that was the moment to leave. Walk away and don't look back, I always thought. Why would you stay? And I'd seen women on television, interviewed in magazines, saying things like, "It isn't that simple," and I'd always thought yes, it is that simple--just leave, just walk away from it."

Meet Catherine Bailey, an independent, fun loving party girl from Lancaster. She is always going out with her friends having the time of her life. Meet Lee Brightman, a dangerously handsome, charming and mysterious man who Catherine stumbles upon one night out with her girlfriends. It doesn't take long for their passionate relationship to bloom. Key to her place and making dinner suddenly turns into demanding to know where she is and telling her what she can not longer wear. Is Lee a little controlling? Or is there more to the story that we don't know?

Fast forward 4 years later. "Cathy" Bailey, girl with severe OCD and chronic panic attacks, keeps to herself and doesn't go out because it's safer that way, right? Her new life, content with checking her flat door more than 10x a day. When Stuart Richardson moves in upstairs things get shaken up. With Catherine's normal routine, change is not something she takes kindly to. Though hope sparks the more she gets to know Stuart. Until Cathy gets news she has not only been dreading but envisioning the last 3 years.  Will Cathy ever strong enough to defeat her demons?


This story is told from two different years, same POV; Catherine Bailey's. We dredge through the wonderful and awful experiences through Catherine's earlier "naïve" days and are instantly back with her present self. I personally, loved the way this book was written. The way each character unfolds, progresses, and regresses. My favorite character from this novel is Catherine. The true sympathy and empathy that Elizabeth Hayes contracts from you is heart wrenching. I wanted to reach out just to tell her; I believe you. Relating to Catherine is something scary for anyone to hear especially someone who has read this. Although I have never been subjected to that type of violence, I do struggle with some OCD and panic attacks myself. My heart went out to this character every time she did the repetitive things she did because that I do understand.

The more domestic violent stories I read, the more my initial beliefs on this subject change. I always told myself how stupid a woman had to be to stick around when a man was physically, mentally, and emotionally abusing her. They are right when they say  it's not that easy.. and it never will be that easy. Putting yourself in the shoes of another in order to gain their perspective sometimes has a life-changing outcome. These stories continue to give me that enlightenment.

On the edge of my seat is where I always found myself when reading this psychological thriller. I needed just one more page, one more look into Catherine's past so I could get closer and closer to see the reasoning behind who she was today and why. Sometimes it may be better not to know after all.  Chilling and intensely frightening, you will not be able to put this book down. You may even check your doors and windows a little more closely..

I really enjoyed this book. I like the back-and-forth between past and present and how both stories related to each other. This was a good thriller.

Not enough angst for me. Definitely a whirlwind between past and present story. I sighed in relief when both finally coincided. It was great she earned herself back but I want to feel gritty in the end. So it was an okay read but a slight disappointment.

I really enjoyed this book. It wasn't really suspenseful until the last 100 pages. Never the less I still liked it. It was very entertaining.

Wow... this book has put me through a roller coaster of emotions. It’s hard to explain why I kept reading even through the most gruesome of scenes, and also why I returned to it even after having a particularly vivid nightmare. This book is uncomfortable, and not just because of violence, but mostly for me because of the way it made me feel, how it tricked me into falling for the main character, for the way he treated Catherine at the beginning, even though it had already been clear even by then that he was a monster. And how I kept missing the clues about his true nature, and how together with Cathy I kept ignoring the obvious. All of the signs and the middle of the book still came in shock for me. I’m praising the author for her ability to put me as a reader through all of this, to make me look over my shoulder as I was reading and even for my nightmares. This story is dark, intense and violent, but it’s so well written that it’s impossible to move on with your life until you read every word of it.

Holy smokes, batman! This book was amazing!

I couldn't put this book down, it kept me reading until very late at night. It is a great thriller, has a really good build up of tension. It kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time. The only thing that I think it missed is some big plot twist. Even though it kept me guessing and doubting the main character, I think it still needed some twist. But it did make me get out of my bed and check if I locked the door. :)

I expected a lot of things from this book, but that was only because I was holding it to previous thriller expectations. While this book does create a sense of physical suspense of who is hiding in the shadows, most of the time it is an emotional thrill. Haynes seems to have created her own type of thriller in this book which was great.

I loved that we flipped through the days almost like a diary but not written like one. We would star with one day in 2003 and the next day we would talk about would be in 2007, and I loved that because while it could be confusing you were able to see who she became because of what happened and it raised questions like "Well, we've met all of her friends, but four years later why does she say that she has no friends?" I felt that this was a whole new element of suspense.

I really really didn't like her friends for a few reasons. Unfortunately for you, those reasons will remain in the pages of my journal because it is a huge spoiler alert. I did feel that the most important moment was when Cathy realizes that getting out of an abusive relationship isn't as easy as everyone seems to think that it is. It is so easy to look from the outside and say "Well, just leave" but when you're in it, clearly it is a lot more complex. I loved Stu and how he tried to help her get through this whole thing. I could only imagine how hard it could be trying to help someone wrestle their very alive demons.

What kept this book from being a four was that it did lack the suspense for me. It was cool how it fipped back and forth, and that really did keep me reading, however, because you already have a big sense of what was going to happen, I felt that it was harder for me to be on edge.

I really loved reading this book once I had the chance to sit down and read it (sadly I got sick right after starting it and so I had a listless day where I whined about wanting to read but feeling to sick to). In the end it wound up being a great book that I know I'm going to recommend.

Afterthought: I noticed on my ARC that it said that the film rights have been optioned and I actually have an opinion on that. Generally I hohum about my books being made to movies, but in the end, I still like to see them. I don't think I would want to see this movie for a few reasons. One, it would eliminate the uniqueness of jumping between before and after because that would make for a horrible movie. Two, there would be no way to properly capture the fear and anxiety that Cathy feels through the whole book. There is only so far that music and good acting can take you.

This was the first book in a while that made me want to stay up late to try to finish. Really intense.

A sick book. Disturbing. Not a easy read. Rape, abuse, murder, and more. I only kept reading because I wanted to know what happened. I couldn’t take the violence any more and skipped through the last few chapters. Need to read something light next.