When she stumbles across the ad, she’s looking for something else completely. But it seems like too good an opportunity to miss—a live-in nannying post, with a staggeringly generous salary. And when Rowan Caine arrives at Heatherbrae House, she is smitten—by the luxurious “smart” home fitted out with all modern conveniences, by the beautiful Scottish Highlands, and by this picture-perfect family. Writing to her lawyer from prison, she struggles to explain the unravelling events that led to her incarceration. It wasn’t just the constant surveillance from the cameras installed around the house, or the malfunctioning technology that woke the household with booming music, or turned the lights off at the worst possible time. It wasn’t just the girls, who turned out to be a far cry from the immaculately behaved model children she met at her interview. It wasn’t even the way she was left alone for weeks at a time, with no adults around apart from the enigmatic handyman, Jack Grant.
The whole plot that the big and isolated mansion which might be haunted together with the concept of a new nanny coming to this house to work there is brilliant. The thing that the nanny is left alone with kids without any adults around expect of the handyman for weeks at a time makes this plot and story more interesting.
There is one plot hole which I at least have noticed while reading this book. But I won’t say what the plot whole is because I don’t want to spoil the book for you. However this plot hole isn’t that big that it will destroy your experience with the book.
The whole story is dark, it involves a lot of deaths and if you get triggered by child death or death in general then maybe you shouldn’t read this book. But if you have no problem in deaths in fictional books then I guess that you won’t be disappointed in this book.
For the most part this book is creepy, atmospheric and it has a creepy mood to it. This book reminded me at the beginning of the “The Haunting of Bly Manor”. This book makes you question if there is actually something paranormal involved in it or if it is just the kids doing pranks on the new nanny. This book also makes you think if the new nanny is overreacting some stuff or if her behavior is on point.
The whole book have sort of an old timely hasted mansion to it with the modern technology which is smart house and a Tesla model X in the background.
The characters are pretty good. There feel some how realistic, there are only few of them and two of them are in this book briefly. For the most part in this book we have only 2 adult characters and 4 child characters. Characters in this book are well written and also very well described. Every character here feels like she / he have it own soul and they are for the most part different from each other.
It is important to say that the format of this book is through letters of the nanny’s writing to a lawyer from prison. In these letters she is describing what had happened since day 1 and why she is innocent. So there is no chapters in this book, the chapters in this book are in the form of a new letter being written to the lawyer. And we get to know this story through what the main character written in the letters.
The ending comes with a twist in it, which maybe will surprise you because we get to know what really happened and why the nanny decided to take the job opportunity at Heatherbrae House. I personally wasn’t the biggest fan of the twist but I had appreciated it because it was for the most part okay.
However this book doesn’t have any scary parts, but it doesn’t fail to keep you on the edge of your seat. If you are looking for a scary book then pick something different.
If you are looking for a decent and quick read, then this book is for you. I think that if you enjoyed “The Haunting of Bly Manor” series you will also enjoy this book. And of course if you are a big fan of Ruth Ware then I will also recommend this book to you.
I give this book 3 / 5
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You’ve lost your daughter.She’s addicted to drugs and to an abusive boyfriend. And she’s made it clear that she doesn’t want to be found. Then, quite by chance, you see her busking in New York’s Central Park. But she’s not the girl you remember. This woman is wasted, frightened and clearly in trouble. You don’t stop to think. You approach her, beg her to come home. She runs. And you follow her into a dark and dangerous world you never knew existed. Where criminal gangs rule, where drugs are the main currency, and murder is commonplace.
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When a beautiful aspiring writer strides into the East Village bookstore where Joe Goldberg works, he does what anyone would do: he Googles the name on her credit card. As Joe invisibly and obsessively takes control of Beck’s life, he orchestrates a series of events to ensure Beck finds herself in his waiting arms. Moving from stalker to boyfriend, Joe transforms himself into Beck’s perfect man, all while quietly removing the obstacles that stand in their way—even if it means murder.
