Watch Me by Jody Gehrman

Kate Youngblood is disappearing. Muddling through her late 30s as a creative writing professor at Blackwood college, she’s dangerously close to never being noticed again. The follow-up novel to her successful debut tanked. Her husband left her for a woman ten years younger. She’s always been bright, beautiful, independent and a little wild, but now her glow is starting to vanish. She’s heading into an age where her eyes are less blue, her charm worn out, and soon no one will ever truly look at her, want to know her, again.

Except one.

Sam Grist is Kate’s most promising student. An unflinching writer with razor-sharp clarity who gravitates towards dark themes and twisted plots, his raw talent is something Kate wants to nurture into literary success. But he’s not there solely to be the best writer. He’s been watching her. Wanting her. Working his way to her for years.

As Sam slowly makes his way into Kate’s life, they enter a deadly web of dangerous lies and forbidden desire. But how far will his fixation go? And how far will she allow it?

Review

The idea of being stalked has always scared me. Can you imagine what it would be like to have someone watch your every move, obsess over you and wrap their minds on some crazy fantasy about you? Scary thought! This is the world that Kate found herself in. She is an author and a college professor. Sam is a student in her writing class and he is totally obsessed with her.

The story is narrated through the two POVs. Sam’s narration, for the most part, is written almost like diary entries or letters addressed to Kate. His thoughts are dark and obsessive. Kate’s narration is also interesting. Readers get to see how an innocent attraction soon turns deadly.

I liked the premise of this book. The first chapters were captivating as the stalking escalated. I looked forward to the inevitable explosion when the characters, especially Kate, wisen up to who Sam really was. At the same time, I wanted to see what Sam would do. There were a couple of tense moments as Sam’s obsession escalated. However, I felt like the pace really slowed down towards the end. Sam’s obsession became the main focus of the narrative and not much else was going on. My interest started waning off towards the end and I ended up not enjoying the final 100 pages as much as the rest of the book.

In the end, I am still undecided about this book. I liked the premise and the writing. There are phrases that I really liked such as this one, ‘to be seen, to be savored, is a gift’. It took me two evenings to read the book. I couldn’t wait to get home from work on both evenings to get back to the book. However, there a few things that nagged me about the story. I didn’t like the two main characters and feel like I didn’t understand the motives behind their actions. Kate especially did a lot of things that made it hard to connect with her. I guess what I am trying to say is that I liked the book but not as much as I expected.Watch Me by Jody Gehrman is still an interesting, stalker novel that I’d recommend to fans of this genre.