Print Length: 335 pages
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer (July 29, 2025)
From Goodreads.com: For Chris, it’s love at first sight. After their grocery store meet-cute, it’s easy to get her name from a fallen Serena. A quick online search reveals Serena’s status (single mom), address, and workplace. And once he discovers she’s a Realtor, Chris schedules a house showing right away. But he isn’t pushy—he’ll wait to ask her out.
In the meantime, he’ll just watch. And listen in. He wants to learn everything about her, so he can make her happy. It’s not creepy; it’s true love.
From their first date, their relationship is perfect. But Serena’s “bestie” keeps getting in the way. She thinks he’s just a friend, but Chris knows better. He knows better about a lot of things. Keeping her in line is getting harder, but their love is worth the effort.
The stars aligned when Chris and Serena met in that Winn-Dixie. And they’re going to be happy together . . . even if it kills them.
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My Rating: 3 stars out of 5
Right off the bat, the style of this one reminded me very much of the show YOU (yes, I know the show was based on a book, but I have not yet read the book). I liked how we got to see Chris' inner monologue throughout everything, not only because it gave us insight into his motivations at the beginning, but also because we got to watch as the delusions became stronger. I also thought this painted a really good picture of how sometimes we don't see the darkness inside others until it is too late.
BUT -
What was interesting to me is there were times where I found myself actually agreeing with Chris. Crazy right?
One example immediately springs to mind, the first being when Chris and Serena went out and she had too much to drink. He brings her home, and while she is upstairs taking her makeup off he goes downstairs to get her a glass of water and some Advil, fully intending to leave after tucking her in. However, while he is doing so, her fourteen year old son (the age is important here because he is obviously not a child), comes downstairs and tells him that he should stay. And not only should he stay, but in the morning he should give Serena a certain kind of Powerade as well as make her a certain type of breakfast. He says it works best as a hangover cure. Yet the very next morning Serena comes downstairs madder than a wet cat because he is standing at her stove cooking because he spent the night while her son was home. It didn't matter to her that he had left her preferred drink on the nightstand. It didn't matter he was cooking her preferred breakfast. Or that her SON had been the one to tell him to stay. Instead of being grateful, she was a complete brat about it, kicking him out immediately.
The rest of the book follows much the way I would assume stories like this one do. Chris eventually shows too much of his hand (aka using information he's gathered from his spy cameras), and Serena leaves him. From there on out, he spirals into an even more obsessed stalker than he has been, she makes some stupid life choices (I mean COME ON), and eventually everything boils over into an ending that honestly doesn't feel as believable or as climatic as I was hoping.
With everything going on (that didn't involve Serena), I was hoping that Chris would be tripped up much sooner than he was and on the topics not related to her. I also found it odd that if a certain detective could spend so much time just parked across the street from his house (and get a warrant to go through his car), she should have been able to tail him without issue making everything else pointless.
At the end of the day, I feel like this book will appear to casual fans of the television adaption of YOU (as again I never read the books), or those who just enjoy novels where obsession takes precedence.
DISCLAIMER: I received a complimentary copy of this novel from the publisher. This has not affected my review in any way. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are 100% my own.
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