Blog Tour: Guest Post: I Was Watching You by Chris Westlake
Today I am part of the blog tour for I Was Watching You by Chris Westlake. He is going to share about himself and the novel! This one looks to be right up my alley of interests, so goes another one to add to my never ending TBR! (And I love the cover!) This one was recently released last month, September 8th.
Book Description:
I WAS WATCHING YOU is a fast-paced psychological suspense thriller that will have you turning the pages well into the night.
When city girls Faye, Zara and Heidi book a weekend away at a remote cottage in rural Wales, it is intended to be the perfect detox from their hectic lives. But they let a stranger into the cottage…and they return home with a dark secret they don’t want exposed.
Five months later and their lives have returned to normal. They think they have gotten away with it. And then a hand-delivered photograph drops through each of their letterboxes.
They were watched.
But who watched them?
What do they want?
And how far are the friends prepared to go to keep their secret?
Buy Your Copy Here:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
A big hello to readers, and a big thank you to Jessica for this guest blog, which I’m going to use to scratch under the surface of my latest psychological thriller, I WAS WATCHING YOU, from my author perspective.
First, a bit about little old me (which is apt, as I published I WAS WATCHING YOU on my 50th birthday). I’m a regular guy with a full-time job, a wife, two kids and a dog who has always wanted to write novels. I decided to obtain some life experience first, and so, at the age of 34, low on both excuses and expectations, I embarked on an online writing course. I’ve now penned seven novels (I DID IT FOR US will be published in early 2027), and so long as I stay healthy, there will be many, many more to come.
I always envisaged I WAS WATCHING YOU would be like Marmite for readers. Whilst the sharp prose, short chapters and the cliffhangers make it a fast read, the multiple POVs, overlapping storylines and the darker themes don’t necessarily make the book an easy read. This was always my intention, though – I love writing books with hidden layers and depth.
When I started plotting I WAS WATCHING YOU way back in 2023, the Incel community was my initial seed. Initially, I jumped straight in and drafted from male POVs, but the book just wasn’t connecting with me enough. It always hurts to start again once you’ve drafted 20,000 or so words, but it was the right thing to do. Taking my research to another level, I devoured books and videos, and gained insight from both men and women.
At this point, the book grew legs. Concepts spiralled into sub-concepts. It was no longer enough to show the insecurities, bitterness and (sometimes) hatred of specific groups of men towards women – I strove to delve into why this was the case.
Somewhere along the line I decided to write the book primarily from the POV of three female characters. As a male author, this undoubtedly made the endeavour more challenging, but I still think it was the right thing to do, adding a unique perspective.
Most readers love the deeper themes. It is music to my ears, for example, when I read comments that I sensitively tackle issues of modern society. On the flip side, if a reader says they aren’t sure what they were supposed to take away from the themes, then they’re already onto my intended angle – I wanted the prose to be as objective as possible, and for the reader to decide what they took away.
Whilst I’m undoubtedly proud of I WAS WATCHING YOU, and I think it’s the best book I’ve written, there were many learning lessons for my next novel. For example, it was only once I’d finished the novel and sent it to BETA readers that I realised the initial plot didn’t make sense! And so, I involved an editor right from the beginning with I DID IT FOR US.
I hope you are one of the readers who love I WAS WATCHING YOU. If you are, please feel free to follow me on my Instagram, ChrisWestlakeAuthor, or sign up to my Chris Westlake Newsletter, where I’ll keep you informed of ARC opportunities and I’ll send you a digital copy of THE F-WORD REALITY SHOW.
About the Author:
Chris Westlake is a psychological suspense thriller writer from Wales. I WAS WATCHING YOU is his 6th novel. I DID IT FOR US will be published in early 2027.
Contact Chris:
Website
Instagram @chriswestlakeauthor
See the entire blog tour here:
Blog Tour: Guest Post: Dreadnought by Robin Bennett
Today I am sharing a guest post as a part of the blog tour for Dreadnought by Robin Bennett. This is a near-future thriller and Robin’s guest post is about the frightening things he didn’t invent while writing this novel! Dreadnought was just released last week on October 15th.
Book Description:
A child sees things she’s sure don’t exist. The adults call it trauma. They’re both wrong.
On a remote Yorkshire headland known as Dreadnought, seven-year-old Cass Delaval begins to glimpse figures and fragments tied to a past that refuses to stay buried.
As the world edges toward conflict, Cass is drawn into a family mystery stretching back to the Second World War: a missing boy, a hidden weapon, and a family secret.
Because whatever has lain dormant on Dreadnought goes deep into our past … and it isn’t finished with us yet.
Dreadnought is a story of loyalty and hope, where the courage of one small girl may be our last defence.
Buy Your Copy Here:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
The Frightening Things I Didn’t Invent
Writing a near-future thriller presents an awkward problem: that future (reality) has an irritating habit of rushing up and contradicting you as it flies past. I was very conscious from the off, then, that I shouldn’t get too far ahead of myself and overblow the geopolitical threats when I started to think about the backdrop to the family mystery, Indeed, when I started writing Dreadnought itself, the Middle East (Gaza, Iran, Trump) hadn’t yet happened. So, when it all started to unravel with alarming velocity in the middle east, I then worried that I hadn’t gone far enough – especially as the final draft was being edited.
However, I stuck to my guns: I hadn’t gone too far into specifics in the book, except to say the world seemed to be on a knife edge and was likely to get worse before it gets better. More degradation of diplomacy and an increase in conflict over the next ten or so years doesn’t seem far-fetched.
And this gave me enough for my purposes and their motivation: the family felt in real danger in London and took refuge on an isolated promontory in North Yorkshire. Sometimes I feel like doing that, too.
The other issue with action in the future is technology. Again, I hedged my bets: most of Dreadnought’s apparently far-fetched military technology is rooted in things already being developed or seriously contemplated. What I did was dramatise those articles you might read these days in Jane’s Defence weekly or military posts on Instagram.
Now a lot of my favourite books that dip a toe into the future have a strong sense of past. I don’t know why that is – at a guess, I’d say it acts as an anchor – a tethering point for all the futuristic stuff. AI-assisted warfare in the front half is linked to the secret WWII experiments on the promontory on Dreadnought – an unintended consequence was it shows that we don’t change: we have the urge to invent first and worry later.
But, most importantly, my intention was to write a literary thriller/mystery, not science fiction. Dreadnought has a strong World War Two theme, running through the second half of the novel, and this is (I hope) does keep the future in its place and within context – these are events, not the point of the story, which is the courage of a child, family loyalty. And how the truth will eventually out,
In the end, the unsettling thing about Dreadnought isn’t what I invented, it’s how little I had to. The suspense and the shocking things come from human nature that hasn’t – at least the last time I checked – changed for millennia and more.
About the Author:
Robin Bennett is an author and entrepreneur who has written over twenty-five books for children. He has also written books on the swashbuckling world of business: How to Make a Good Living Running Your Own Business, Kicking the Property Ladder and Start up Smart, all published by Harriman House.
In 2024 Cracking was shortlisted for a Week Junior Book Award and Sunday Times Sports Book of the Year for Children. His YA novel ‘XII’ was shortlised for a British Book Award in 2023 and his very popular Monster Max Series is a Book Trust pick and won Coventry Inspiration Book Awards in 2022. Picus the Thief, won the Writer’s News Indie Published Book of the Year Award in 2012.
When Robin grew up he thought he wanted to be a cavalry officer until everyone else realised that putting him in charge of a tank was a very bad idea. He then became an assistant gravedigger in London. After that he had a career frantically starting businesses (everything from dog-sitting to cigars, tuition to translation)… until finally settling down to write improbable stories to keep his children from killing each other on long car journeys.
When not writing or starting companies, Robin plays most sports. Poorly.
Contact Robin:
Instagram: @robinbennettauthor
Tiktok @robinbennettauthor
See the entire blog tour here:
Audiobook Review: The Survivor’s Guild by Gabriella Saab
The Survivors Guild
Author: Gabriella Saab
Narrators:
Saskia Maarleveld
Gail Shalan
Published: September 1, 2026
Audiobook: 12 hours 33 minutes
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened To: September 21-28, 2026
Jessica’s Rating: 4 stars
Book Description:
In 1912 aboard the RMS Titanic, Nabiha “Bea” Nohra is traveling to America to find work, eager to earn the funds necessary to afford passage for the family she left in Lebanon. On the same ship, heiress Marguerite Ashby sails home to celebrate her engagement to a dull British lord, a marriage that will secure her new-money family’s place in old New York society. But when the Titanic sinks, the two women’s paths are fused together when Bea saves Marguerite’s life and they are unexpectedly charged with the smallest survivor—a baby boy.
No one claims the infant, so the women form a committee to aid survivors and locate the baby’s next of kin. Bea works as the child’s nanny, desperate to bring her family to America before the difficulties in Lebanon overwhelm them. Meanwhile Marguerite hopes the committee’s charitable efforts will win society’s respect and render an advantageous marriage unnecessary, sparing her from marrying a man she does not love—unless her parents force her to fulfill the obligation no matter what society says. And when finding the child’s relatives proves to be no simple task, the women are soon enmeshed in deception and uncertainty as they seek to determine where the baby truly belongs.
The committee might grant the acceptance Marguerite craves, connect Bea with the stability she needs, and lead them to the baby’s relatives. But a committee helmed by an American heiress and a Lebanese nanny is hardly customary. Surviving a shipwreck is only the start. As Marguerite’s wedding looms nearer and Bea faces the increasing hardships of adjusting to her new country, they must fight for survival once more. This time, to survive New York society.
Jessica’s Review:
I have always been intrigued by the Titanic and when I saw this book I wanted to read it and was so glad to be granted an audiobook copy to listen to! This was such an interesting premise with a fight for survival and the aftermath of the sinking with the focus on two women survivors of different classes.
We have Marguerite Ashby who was a first-class passenger new American wealth and we also have Nabiha ‘Bea’ Nohra who was third-class and a Lebanese immigrant. The Survivors Guild is comprised of their stories told in alternating chapters. We experience the terror of the sinking with both women, who also end up with a baby boy. Together in the aftermath in New York they create a committee to help survivors and hopefully find the baby’s family. But the story is so much more, the novel shows the issues women dealt with at the time depending on their class and status, and how choices that women make may seem seemingly small become huge.
I really enjoyed this novel and it was very apparent on the research that Saab did to prepare in writing this novel. And who would have thought that there were Lebanese immigrants on the Titanic?!?! And in addition to trying to survive these passengers also had a language barrier. Imagine how much more frightened they were with possibly no one to translate and help ease those fears.
I liked both Marguerite and Bea. Two different women from two different classes forming a friendship and a committee to help other survivors? These are two strong women and we see this in the various decisions they make. I was 1000% invested in finding ‘Baby Rémy’s’ family and how that story was going to conclude.
Due to my hearing issue, I believe it made it harder for me to understand the narrator portraying Bea. I did have to go back on those tracks from time to time and concentrate more on Bea’s chapters. This is no fault of the narrator. Otherwise they both did a fine job.
Be sure to listen to the author’s note at the end of the novel. This is my first novel by Saab, and it won’t be my last!
Thank you to the publisher Harper Muse Audiobooks for granting me a copy to listen to and review!
Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK