Eyes on You

Are you impressed with the amount of book reviews lately? Being laid up because of mouth pain means I get to read a lot while I watch everyone else do the laundry and vacuuming.

Eyes On You - Kate White

From New York Times bestselling author Kate White comes a riveting psychological suspense in which a media star must battle a malevolent enemy who may be disturbingly close to her. 

After losing her on-air job two years ago, television host Robin Trainer has fought her way back and now she’s hotter than ever. With her new show climbing in the ratings and her first book a bestseller, she’s being dubbed a media double threat. 

But suddenly, things begin to go wrong. Small incidents at first: a nasty note left in her purse; her photo shredded. But the obnoxious quickly becomes threatening when the foundation the makeup artist uses burns Robin’s face. It wasn’t an accident—someone had deliberately doctored with the product. 

An adversary with a dark agenda wants to hurt Robin, and the clues point to someone she works with every day. While she frantically tries to put the pieces together and unmask this hidden foe, it becomes terrifyingly clear that the person responsible isn’t going to stop until Robin loses everything that matters to her . . . including her life.

I'm a medium kind of Kate White fan. I really liked Hush  and I was only kind of a fan of The Sixes. I haven't read anything else because I felt like, unless I could find it at the library and I had nothing else in my pile or I found a great deal, I'd let them go. But then this was available on tour and the premise seemed really interesting and I thought, I haven't had a good thriller lately, I'm going to give it a try. 

And.... I was disappointed. I had a hard time getting into it because I didn't like the main character, Robin so much. Secondly, this read a lot like Nora Roberts Private Scandals, which I read years ago and totally loved. Though that one obviously has a romance element to it and this one doesn't really, there were a lot of similarities for me. 

When you read the book it does feel like an episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent, so in that regard I enjoyed it. But the writing felt a little flat for me and I was able to figure out who the culprit was by mid book and that always ruins the second half for me. When I read a thriller, I want to be on the edge of me seat and have the gasp with "WHAT?!" when the bad guy is revealed. I never want to see it coming and I want to have the wind taken out of me. You'll get none of that with this book. 

Overall I felt like this novel could have gone a lot further and it just didn't. I always set out thinking I'm going to be a big fan and I want to be. I don't know why, but I want to be. And then... I don't know. Maybe if I hadn't read the Nora Roberts book, or a few others similar to it, I wouldn't feel so blah about this one. It's like re-reading the same story with slightly different details and it's just hard for me to say- go buy this book. 

BUT- if you haven't read Kate White yet, this might be a good one to start with and then read The Sixes and then read Hush because it'll feel like she's getting better and better with her writing. All would make entertaining vacation reads for sure, especially if you are looking to step out of your regular genre. 

Kate does have a website HERE, and you can check out her Facebook as well, HERE. 

The Sixes

Time for another book review! A little over a year ago I read and reviewed Hush by Kate White and so when I got the opportunity to read another book she's written, I totally jumped on it.

The Sixes

Right after Phoebe Hall’s long-term boyfriend breaks off their relationship, she’s falsely accused of plagiarizing her latest bestselling celebrity biography. Looking for a quiet place to put her life back together, she jumps at the offer to teach in a small private college in Pennsylvania run by her former boarding school roommate. But something evil lurks behind the quiet campus cafés and leafy maple trees. When the body of a female student washes up on the banks of a nearby river, disturbing accusations begin to surface about abuses wrought by a secret campus society known as The Sixes. Haunted by memories of her own school days, Phoebe launches a private investigation, and soon finds herself in the middle of a real-life nightmare, not knowing whom she can trust and if she will even survive. Because with the truth comes a terrifying revelation: your darkest secrets can still be uncovered . . . and starting over may be a crime punishable by death.


I always forget how much I love a good mystery until I find myself reading one, and this was pretty damn good. Let me talk about the things that annoyed me first so we can move on quickly from that to what I liked about the book. First off, I kind of wanted to punch Phoebe. I wanted to punch Phoebe because she's that woman who is always way too focused on the wrong thing. She's setting aside her personal safety and ignoring blatant warnings in order to figure out who the Sixes are and what their role is on campus. Never mind the fact that I never felt like the Sixes were a big deal. Is this wrong of me? In hind sight I think maybe there's something fundamentally wrong with me that I don't think they are a big deal. 


Moving on from that, I really liked that I absolutely had no idea what was going on. I couldn't figure out all of the puzzle pieces to solve it. I will say that I absolutely did not see the ending coming even though the character who was the culprit seemed a bit off to me. I couldn't figure out what it was about that person's story (see, I'm not giving you ANY hints) that seemed strange, but having watched every episode of every variety of Law & Order at least twice, something was totally off. Which is what Hutch (a character) suspected and tried to share with Phoebe. 


So overall? This was good. Best mystery ever? No, but it was entertaining and I enjoyed reading it for sure. It's enough to keep you intrigued all the way through. Even for the last minute curve ball thrown at the end. 


I suggest you check out Kate's website and even her Facebook. After reading her books you'll consider yourself a fan. I can't wait for her next one!