Nina Laurin’s ‘A Woman Alone’ Taps Into Our Worst Nightmares [REVIEW]

They thought they’d outrun their past. They believed they were entitled to a do over. But sometimes, new beginnings aren’t everything they are cracked up to be. What will one couple do when their new lease on life becomes a living nightmare? Find out in Nina Laurin’s A Woman Alone.

Cecelia Holmes and her husband, Scott, need a fresh start after their previous home is broken into by one of their contractors. More than anything else, Cecelia wants to feel safe again. So the couple signs papers and move into a Smart-home in beautiful Venture, Illinois.

Soon, however, Cecelia begins to notice the house’s little “quirks” which begin to annoy her. For example, she’s served coffee that isn’t her favorite brew. The bath temperature is too hot. And to add insult to injury, Saya, the name of the home’s artificial intelligence unit, calls her Lydia instead of Cecelia. Worse yet, she begins to think someone is spying on her.

As questions mount, Cecelia’s mind reels as she struggles to solve an equation that just doesn’t add up. Moreover, her family, friends and husband think she is paranoid and begin to lose patience with her. Could she really be imagining these things? Who is Lydia? And why do these snafus seem to only be happening to her? Is the house somehow singling her out?

With A Woman Alone, Laurin weaves a mysterious yarn which makes our hearts race and our palms sweat. It digs deep into our psyche and taps into our worst nightmares, leaving an indelible mark seared right into our soul.

Suspenseful, atmospheric, and eerie, A Woman Alone is the kind of novel that steps into Hitchcock territory, and is easily one of the best novels I’ve read this year. Tautly plotted and expertly written, this is a thriller which packs a wallop and guarantees we will remember the name Nina Laurin for years to come.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Nina Laurin is the bestselling author of Girl Last Seen, What My Sister Knew, and The Starter Wife. She has also written a number of other suspenseful stories for both adults and young adults.

Fascinated by the darker side of mundane things, and she’s always on the lookout for her next twisted book idea.

She wrote her first book while getting her BA in creative writing at Concordia University, in her hometown of Montreal, Canada, where she currently resides.

To find out more, visit the author at NinaLaurin.com and follow her on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Goodreads.

A WOMAN ALONE
By Nina Laurin
336 pp. Grand Central. $14.99

Purchase A Woman Alone direct from Jathan & Heather’s Beach Reads Book Shop or from one of these other fine online retailers: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, Half Price Books, IndieBound, or Powell’s.