When No One is Watching by Alyssa Cole

 

Welcome Back, Booklovers! I'm back with another review and this time I decided to read something different and pick up a suspense book. First I'd like to thank William Morrow/ HarperCollins Publishers for sending me this book for review. 

I was excited to read this book. So many people gave it much praise and claimed I just had to read it. And the premise was so interesting. A thriller tackling gentrification in Brooklyn sounded like a fun read. The beginning is slow. So slow I thought I was going to put it down at one point as I was several chapters in and felt no connection to the dual leads or minor characters. And the leads had similar voices at first that I didn't realize it was dual perspective until Chapter 3 and had to go back and reread.  So our female lead is Sydney, a Black woman who not long ago moved back to the neighborhood fresh from a divorce. The male lead is Theo a white guy who recently moved into the neighborhood with his girlfriend after buying a house together before shit hit the fan in their relationship. 

The pacing for this story was very odd. I don't read a lot of thrillers but I came into this expecting something more thrilling. I wanted a more steady pace that kept my heart pumping. Nothing happened for the first 30% and then it would stop and start going forward before the very last portion of the story where the events were kicked into overdrive.

And if you aren't also a fan of romantic suspense then this isn't for you. I don't mind romantic suspense but I find that the romance part often takes over the suspense part. This book would have some interesting tidbits but then the romance would take place. And I felt nothing for the romance. Why is a book where we spend so much time talking about the evil white people gentrifying the neighborhood, does our leading lady fall for the somewhat naive white guy gentrifying the neighborhood? Oh, but he's not like those caricature white folks in the neighborhood. He's not super woke but he's eager to learn! There's was also a very detailed sex scene that would've been very sensual for a romance but felt too in depth for this story especially after the big reveal that happened prior. Why must we always shoehorn interracial forbidden romance into our stories?

I will give Alyssa Cole her props for doing a lot of research on the history of Brooklyn and how Black people were forced out of the neighborhoods during different periods of history. Unfortunately at times it felt more like a history lesson and very heavy handed. Some light history was needed and helps build the background of the story. Plus that was time we could have instead gotten familiar with the current Black residents of Gifford Place. I didn't really care as they were pushed out of the neighborhood because Sydney barely felt close to them herself. I don't need to like the characters in a book to enjoy it but I do need to feel some form of attachment. 

I liked how the discussions from the neighborhood app OurHood were inserted. The conversations on there were the only time I really felt a sense of community. And many neighborhoods that white folks inhabit including my own though I've never checked it out do have those apps. Because even the rare times they came together as neighbors it didn't feel like they were truly close knit.

The white villains were caricatures who were so blatantly obvious with their intentions it was eye rolling. Central Park Karen um I mean Kim was too much too soon and she set the tone for the evil white folks we would encounter in this story. And the last section of the book started feeling really dystopian to me which while entertaining was odd because that wasn't the tone throughout. 

I really do think this had potential to be a great story befitting of all the rave reviews but it didn't quite come together for me the way I would've liked. It was a decent first attempt at romantic suspense for Alyssa Cole and I wish it would've been marketed that way to set expectations.