Kate Moretti's The Vanishing Year meets Kimberly Belle's The Marriage Lie in this twisty domestic suspense about a teenaged girl who disappears and is thought drowned--and the dark secrets she leaves behind.

Leah, a popular sixteen year old, is uncharacteristically apprehensive the night before her new school year begins. She decides to take a moonlight paddle at her divorced parents’ Florida beachside inn to take the edge off her anxiety. Moments later she vanishes in the water without a trace. The police assume death by drowning since sharks had been sighted nearby earlier in the day. They do a cursory investigation and that's it. The community comes out to give support, but days later her mother Emily is still wondering what happened to her beautiful daughter. And why is there no body?

In the days that follow, Emily accidentally discovers pornographic images of her daughter on her laptop. Some appear to be selfies taken for someone else's pleasure. Others are clearly taken by a voyeur and sent to Leah. Shockingly, they reveal darkly tantalizing clues to an older man’s involvement. Emily's heartbreak turns to deep rage as she sets out to unmask who this monster is who has stolen her daughter's innocence--and perhaps more. As her suspicion falls on various locals who, as unlikely as they may seem, may have lured Leah into risky, even deadly, behavior--the youth pastor, the long time resident in bungalow 3, his son who visits from New York--she trusts no one. Suddenly her once close knit community, itself its own paradise, has been invaded by evil, an evil that is still lurking in the shadows--one that she is determined to expose.

This is literally every parent’s worst nightmare. I adore Courtney Evan Tate (Courtney Cole) and have read almost everything she has ever written.

I’ll be honest and say that I struggled with this one despite the topic. Grooming and having someone close to my child that could be a pedophile is something that I struggle with. Did I teach my kids what to look for? Will they know to stay away? Are they smart enough to resist and not go down this path? The answers… I don’t know but I sure pray to God I taught them how to protect themselves.

I’ll Be Watching You is labeled as a thriller and the reader will for sure go back and forth wondering who did it, what happened, how can parents survive the loss of their child. But there was always something underlying to me that I had a suspicion of who did it. I liked the use of Leah’s blog entries, I loved her friends and how realistic this story was. But where I struggled… this wasn’t a long book but it still took me a long time to get into it. I guess I was hoping for more of the thrill-creepiness factor that I didn’t really feel like I got. Yes, I got some but I wanted more. I also thought it strange when we were in different POV’s throughout the chapters.

I enjoy Courtney’s writing and I look forward to reading many more from her. This one was just my favorite though the topic is something that is a big fear of mine.