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26th Nov 2019

13 books like You to read while you’re waiting for season two

Keeley Ryan

Ever since it dropped on Netflix last Christmas, fans have been hooked on You. 

Especially with season two just around the corner.

Yes, just one year after the first series landed on the streaming service, Joe Goldberg is back.

The 10 episode second season will pick up where the last season left off, with a heartbroken Joe realising his past was starting to catch up with him in the form of long-lost ex-girlfriend Candace — a woman now hell-bent on teaching him a lesson.

It’s sure to be dramatic. And gripping. And, well, most likely very creepy and terrifying.

However, if you can’t quite wait for the new episodes to arrive, we have rounded up 13 books like You to read while waiting for season two.

Cold Cold Heart by Tami Hoag

Dana Nolan was a promising young TV reporter until she was kidnapped by a notorious serial killer. A year has passed since she survived the ordeal, but Dana is still physically, emotionally, and psychologically scarred.

In an attempt to put herself back together, Dana returns to her hometown. But it doesn’t provide the comfort she expects: she struggles to recognize family and childhood friends and begins experiencing dark flashbacks. But she’s not sure if they’re truly memories or side effects of her brain injury.

Dana decides to use her investigative skills to piece together her past and the event that made her become a reporter in the first place: the disappearance of her best friend, Casey Grant, the summer after high school graduation. But now, old friends seem to be suspects, authority figures part of a cover-up. Dana begins to question everything she knows. And is the truth really something too terrible to be believed?

Hidden Bodies by Caroline Kepnes

Joe came to Los Angeles to start over, to forget about what happened in New York. But in a darkened room in Soho House everything suddenly changed.

She is like no one he’s ever met before. She doesn’t know about his past and never can. The problem is, hidden bodies don’t always stay that way.

An Anonymous Girl by Greer Hendricks

When Jessica signs up for a psychology study conducted by the mysterious Dr Shields, she thinks all she’ll have to do is answer a few questions, collect her money and leave. But as the questions grow more and more invasive, she begins to feel as though they know what she’s thinking . . . and what she’s hiding.

As Jessica’s paranoia grows, it becomes clear that she can no longer trust what is real in her life, and what is one of Dr Shields’s manipulative experiments. Caught in a web of deceit and jealousy, Jess quickly learns that some obsessions can be deadly.

Lock Every Door by Riley Sager

No visitors. No nights spent away from the apartment. No disturbing the other residents.  These are the only rules for Jules Larson’s new job as apartment sitter for an elusive resident of the Bartholomew, one of Manhattan’s most high-profile private buildings and home to the super rich and famous.

Recently heartbroken and practically homeless, Jules accepts the terms, ready to leave her past life behind. Out of place among the extremely wealthy, Jules finds herself pulled toward other apartment sitter Ingrid.

But Ingrid confides that the Bartholomew is not what it seems and the dark history hidden beneath its gleaming facade is starting to frighten her. Jules brushes it off as a harmless ghost story – but the next day, her new friend has vanished. And then Jules discovers that Ingrid is not the first temporary resident to go missing…

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

Alicia Berenson writes a diary as a release, an outlet – and to prove to her beloved husband that everything is fine. She can’t bear the thought of worrying Gabriel, or causing him pain.

Until, late one evening, Alicia shoots Gabriel five times and then never speaks another word.

Forensic psychotherapist Theo Faber is convinced he can successfully treat Alicia, where all others have failed. Obsessed with investigating her crime, his discoveries suggest Alicia’s silence goes far deeper than he first thought. And if she speaks, would he want to hear the truth?

Cruel Acts by Jane Casey

Leo Stone is a ruthless killer – or the victim of a miscarriage of justice. A year ago, he was convicted of the murder of two women and sentenced to life in prison. But now he’s free, and according to him, he’s innocent.

DS Maeve Kerrigan and DI Josh Derwent are determined to put Stone back behind bars where he belongs, but the more Maeve finds out, the less convinced she is of his guilt. Then another woman disappears in similar circumstances. Is there a copycat killer, or have they been wrong about Stone from the start?

Sadie by Courtney Summers

A missing girl on a journey of revenge and a Serial – like podcast following the clues she’s left behind.

Sadie hasn’t had an easy life. Growing up on her own, she’s been raising her sister Mattie in an isolated small town, trying her best to provide a normal life and keep their heads above water. But when Mattie is found dead, Sadie’s entire world crumbles. After a somewhat botched police investigation, Sadie is determined to bring her sister’s killer to justice and hits the road following a few meager clues to find him.

When West McCray – a radio personality working on a segment about small, forgotten towns in America – overhears Sadie’s story at a local gas station, he becomes obsessed with finding the missing girl. He starts his own podcast as he tracks Sadie’s journey, trying to figure out what happened, hoping to find her before it’s too late.

Watching You by Lisa Jewell

You’re back home after four years working abroad, new husband in tow. You’re keen to find a place of your own. But for now you’re crashing in your big brother’s spare room.

That’s when you meet the man next door. He’s the head teacher at the local school. Twice your age. Extraordinarily attractive. You find yourself watching him. All the time.

But you never dreamed that your innocent crush might become a deadly obsession. Or that someone is watching you.

My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing

How well do you really know the person that you love the most in the world?

Their life was just like yours. Nice house, great kids, the perfect life. But they have a very dark secret.

You might think you’ve read stories like this before. You’re wrong.

The Loneliest Girl in the Universe by Lauren James

Romy Silvers is the only surviving crew-member of a spaceship travelling to a new planet, on a mission to establish a second home for humanity. Alone in space, she is the loneliest girl in the universe until she hears about a new ship which has launched from Earth with a single passenger on board. A boy called J.

Their only communication is via email and due to the distance between them, their messages take months to transmit. And yet Romy finds herself falling in love.

But what does Romy really know about J? And what do the mysterious messages which have started arriving from Earth really mean? Sometimes, there’s something worse than being alone…

It Ends with Her by Brianna Labuskes

FBI special agent Clarke Sinclair doesn’t give up easily. She’s spent years tracking serial killer Simon Cross, forced to follow his twisted clues and photographs across the country. Clarke knows that Cross selects only redheaded women and that he doesn’t target another victim until Clarke discovers the previous one.

He’s never broken pattern…until now.

A girl has already gone missing in upstate New York when a second one is kidnapped—a blonde. The killer’s MO has changed, sending Clarke back to the drawing board. The closer she gets to the truth, the deeper she’s drawn into an inescapable trap made just for Clarke. Whatever Cross’s ultimate game is, it ends with her.

Verity by Colleen Hoover

Lowen Ashleigh is a struggling writer on the brink of financial ruin. When Jeremy Crawford, husband of bestselling author Verity Crawford, asks Lowen to complete the remaining books in a contract his permanently injured wife is unable to fulfill, Lowen has no choice but to accept.

Lowen arrives at the Crawford home with the intention of only staying one or two nights—long enough to sort through Verity’s chaotic home office to collect all the notes and outlines she’ll need to start writing the first novel. But the more time Lowen spends with Jeremy Crawford, the less of a hurry she is in to leave. While there, Lowen uncovers a hidden manuscript. An autobiography containing chilling admissions Verity planned to take to her grave, including the truth behind the events that turned their lives upside down. A truth that, if revealed to Jeremy, would further devastate the already grieving father.

Lowen decides to keep the manuscript a secret, allowing Jeremy to continue to believe Verity is merely an innocent, unfortunate victim of circumstance. But as Lowen’s feelings for the devoted father and husband deepen, she wonders if keeping Jeremy in the dark is in her own best interest. After all, if Jeremy were to read his wife’s autobiography, the disturbing truth would make it impossible for him to continue to love her.

A Simple Favor by Darcey Bell

It starts with a simple favour – an ordinary kindness mothers do for one another. When her best friend, Emily, asks Stephanie to pick up her son from school she happily says yes.

Their children are classmates and best friends. And five-year-olds love being together – just like she and Emily. As a widow and stay-at-home blogger mum living in suburban Connecticut, Stephanie was lonely until she met Emily, a glamorous and successful PR executive.

The trouble is that Emily doesn’t come back. No matter what the police say, Stephanie knows that she would never leave her son. Terrified, she reaches out to her fellow mummy bloggers. And she also reaches out to Emily’s husband – just to offer her support. What Stephanie hasn’t shared are the secrets buried in a murky past.

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