The Book:
Don’t Open Your Eyes by Liv Constantine
Published June 17, 2025 by Bantam
Date read: may 27, 2025
Find more June 2025 releases here.
Don’t Open Your Eyes spoilers can be found below, but they’re hidden under a spoiler tag so you’re safe to keep scrolling if you’d just like to read my review.
The Characters:
Annabel and James
Their daughters, Scarlet and Olivia
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The Plot (from Goodreads):
Annabelle has everything she’s ever wanted. A devoted husband, two wonderful daughters, and a career she loves. She couldn’t be happier. So why is she suddenly plagued by disturbing dreams of a future where she hates her husband and her daughters’ lives are at risk? At first, she chalks the dreams up to an overactive imagination. But when details from her dreams, details she couldn’t possibly have predicted, begin to materialize, she realizes these aren’t just dreams but rather premonitions of a terrifying future. They all point to a singular choice, an unknown moment that holds Annabelle’s life in the balance.
Then Annabelle has a dream that her daughter, Scarlett, is in immediate danger. Someone wants Scarlett dead and Annabelle has no idea who or why. Suddenly, every choice she makes is fraught with peril, with no inkling of which move could bring this terrifying vision to life. As her present life starts to collide with the future in her dreams, she wrestles with how much control she really has over her destiny and whether or not she can change what is meant to be.
Don’t Open Your Eyes Spoilers
The Reveal:
So much double-crossing!
When Annabel was young, she got pregnant by her previous boyfriend Rusty. She caught Rusty cheating on her and left him before the baby was born. James had been Rusty’s roommate, had always had a thing for Annabel, and helped her through the pregnancy. The night Annabel gave birth, he delivered the baby, but there were complications and the baby died.
Annabel’s new client Chase was also the “Ben” that Scarlet had matched with on the DNA website, although he had used his son Lucas’s DNA with a fake name. Although it was made to seem like Scarlet had a crush on Ben, she knew he was her brother all along and was just happy to have a friend.
Everything came to a head when Scarlet and “Ben” were finally about to meet in person. Chase came to the coffee shop, and Scarlet ran out when she thought he’d scammed her. Scarlet was then hit by a car (the same car Chase drove) and went into a coma.
Scarlet was eventually fine. Although Chase was framed, it came out that his wife Tara was a sociopath and had staged the whole thing from Lucas’s birth. (The “Wife” chapters were from Tara’s POV.) James had sold Tara Annabel’s baby, because he wanted to be able to start a new life with Annabel without Rusty playing a part in it. When Tara saw that Chase had done a DNA test on Lucas, she began messaging Scarlet pretending to be Ben. She set up the meeting, so Chase thought there had only been the initial match and then the email asking to meet. Tara also rented a car that was the same model as Chase’s and hit Scarlet as she was leaving the meeting, because she didn’t want Scarlet to take her son away.
The Ending:
While in prison, Tara struck a deal to get James to confess on tape, so he was arrested as well. Chase and Annabel remained friends, and Lucas began to see Annabel and her daughters as family.
The dreams were odd and unexplained. I hated the psychic aspect and how it was a deus ex machina way to have Annabel solve the case. They also never really explained why Tara bought the baby from James–they went from talking about how she never really wanted a child and was faking miscarriages, to her admitting she was in on it with James from the start. That part needed more explanation in my opinion.
I hope these Don’t Open Your Eyes spoilers were helpful.
The Review:
I’ve been a long time lover of this author duo, and they’re certainly an auto-buy author for me. DON’T OPEN YOUR EYES lived up to my expectations for the most part, although there was one particular thing I didn’t enjoy.
I really loved the overall plot, how it unfolded, and all of the double-crossing. While I was onto the truth, I wasn’t exactly right! Despite many twists, the way the reveals were presented made sense. I only was left with a couple minor questions.
There was unfortunately a bit of deus ex machina that leaned a bit too close to a trope I hate (that link has spoilers!). I wouldn’t quite put this book in the surprise paranormal trope, but the dreams being used to solve the case was a bit much for me. I would have preferred a real-life explanation for WHY Annabel was having the dreams, instead of the dreams cracking the case and then magically stopping. If the authors had left the dream bit out entirely, this book would have been near perfect!
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