I really enjoyed this book. It was hard to put down as it drew me in immediately and before I knew it I was in the middle of the book!

The characters are conflicting. I like them, but not all of them. When I think of it, the flaws in them should make them feel more realistic, but some decisions did not appeal to me, which explains why I am not a big fan of the main characters. I like the characters in this book. It's told from Mary and Tim's POV as you get to know each. I was a bit disappointed in the ending though. To me it seemed to just happen and then that was that. No real closure maybe. Or explanation. Something was just missing.What happens when people aren’t what they seem? Well, I’ll tell you, you put on your big girl panties and you handle it. One thing to know about these two, because it will be repeated incessantly for the first quarter of the book: They’re tired. Really, really, reeeally tired. It’s amazing that they can function at all, they’re so tired. Despite their unending tiredness, these neighbors both end up in a park near their homes at 4 AM peering up at a lit window of a home where they both believe they’ve seen a young woman, Samantha Ellis, recently reported missing in the news.

There is no secret I absolutely adore Claire McGowan. I have bookstagram to thank for the introduction. After seeing just about EVERYONE post about Are You Awake, I knew I had to make this one a priority. I pushed aside my Christmas themed books and took a dive right in.This was very formulaic like many thrillers from well-known authors this year, which was disappointing. Thankfully Audrey made the first part of the book slightly enjoyable. That said, it was an interesting idea and it did keep me reading as I wanted to know what had happened - though the finale was a little flat; I was expecting a big twist but there were no real surprises at the end. I feel like this had promise going into it. I’ve loved the author before, started off with an intriguing plot line, and then my interest sort of fizzled.

This was a hard one to rate. It's a book that I didn't dislike but I didn't particularly like either. Although readers are meant to feel for the two main characters as one struggles with PTSD and the other is a sleep deprived Mother with a husband who is clueless. I mean seriously, how did he not see how tired his wife was? But do we care for them? I didn't really connect with either. I can relate to being a sleep deprived mother but that was it. But with her marriage under strain and the police on their tail, Mary begins to doubt her own mind…and Tim’s. And as the pair are drawn into a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse, the culprit appears to be even closer to home than they thought. Have they got it all wrong, or is something even more sinister going on?How can you make the MC a lawyer who asks questions like: "Wasn't it a crime to hide evidence too? But how did they even know that's what it was?" GURL??? ARE YOU ACTUALLY SERIOUS. THE BAG BELONGS TO A MISSING GIRL. OFC IT'S EVIDENCE. AND YOU SHOULD KNOW THAT'S A CRIME. HAVE YOU NEVER WATCHED CRIMINAL MINDS?? EVEN A LIL NCIS??? CMON!!! The plot had really nice build to it, everything went well until the end. The ending is a bit rushed but it didn't ruin it for me. This is my second experience of Claire McGowan's work, having previously read and enjoyed "I Know You". The premise for "Are You Awake?" was an enticing one and I had every reason to hope that I would enjoy this novel every bit as much as the previous one I had read. Unfortunately, I didn't. The two meet when they venture outside of their respective houses in the middle of a sleepless night after “witnessing” what appears to be “violence” in the attic room of a boarded up house across the park. As I mentioned above, there are some very amusing scenes in this book, and I think it would have benefited if it just embraced the humorous aspects of what silly things the characters were doing here and there. It didn’t deter my reading, but I wonder if other readers would’ve embraced the silliness a bit more if it was straightforward in the funny department. I love reading about amateur sleuths, and it was fun to picture Mary and Tim bopping around town, trying to get information…only to find themselves in more trouble. I also found the pacing perfect. I had a hard time putting it down (until the end, when I was ready for it to wrap up), and wanted to know how it ended.

There are two main narrators of this story: Tim and Mary. As the story starts they are complete strangers, but soon they will be united by their present circumstances. The story is set mainly in the outskirts of London during a boiling hot summer. A local nineteen-year-old girl called Samantha has been abducted in the dead of night, walking home from her shift as a care assistant in the Care Home. The local police have been overwhelmed by sightings.

A Note From the Publisher

Mary hasn't slept in what feels like years. Her two young children never let her rest, and so one exhausting night, in the middle of a London heatwave, she escapes to a nearby park for some air. So sadly just a 3 star read for me I really wanted to like it more it had some funny moments and I think that’s what kept me reading till the end. Mary is a married mum of two wee ones who is desperate to sleep. She is also a lawyer which in this story is almost irrelevant. One tormented sleepless night up with her babies she looks out the window and questions what she sees...is it her insomnia-induced state or did she really see something? Meanwhile, Tim is awake but for different reasons. His terrible past prevents him from falling asleep. But on that same fateful night he, too, sees something from his window. The two meet one night and make a decision to investigate. Is there a link to the missing neighbourhood girl? The pasts become the present as other characters appear. And there is reason to question each of them.