I picked up this book on the premise that it was a romantic suspense but once I started reading, I realised it wasn't particularly romantic but frankly a little disturbing. Sure there are 'romantic' overtures made by the lead character, stalker-in-chief, Keaton Rush but as these are usually motivated by his obsession with his object of affection, Olivia Pierson, and his need to fully possess her. Therefore, it's hard to see his actions as anything other than selfish and creepy - as is the way with stalker fantasies.

I honestly wasn't prepared for just how graphic the sexual content was, but what bothered me more was how sex is used as the tool for Olivia to become equally as obsessed with Keaton as he was with her. At every turn, where she seems to be falling deeper and dangerously in love, I was screaming for her to wake up and face reality. Although she asks some of the questions we all ask in a new relationships, she never seems to probe as far as she should for fear of angering him, or maybe it was her general lack of interest. All her feminist leanings and declarations of not needing a man appear fly out the proverbial window in the face of Keaton's superhuman-like sexual prowess, and his kindness to her son.

In fact I think the portrayal of Olivia is why I didn't enjoy this novel as much as I would have liked. She comes across as quite vapid and whiny, when she's meant to be this tough, sassy single mum who does whatever she has to in order to provide for her family. Instead, I found myself more interested in Keaton in all in his terrifyingly, creepily obsessive, gaslighting glory. Also, I just had no idea where this story was going. Was Keaton going to be reformed by love? Was Olivia going to end up dead as punishment for falling for the wrong guy? Who knows? The novel is left rather open-ended to make room for the inevitable sequel.

That all said, Obsessed is well written, with the exception of some the dialogue which was quite stilted and at times unrealistic. I'm aware that this novel was translated from German, so I'm wondering if some things got lost in translation. Also there were some grammatical and spelling errors, which although didn't detract from the overall story, were very noticeable.