3.5 stars rounded up to 4.
Twenty-something Emily's life is a mess. She wants to be an actress, but it's not working out, and she just lost her agent. Running late from an audition, she also loses her temp job and isn't sure how she's going to pay the bills and is getting desperate. But then, Scott, the head of the company where she was temping, offers her what sounds like a dream job. Can she please go stay with his wife, Nina, and young daughter, Aurelia, at their secluded, ocean-front estate in France? She will have a variety of duties, but, basically, will be a companion to the two of them. It sounds too good to be true. Once she's there, it feels too good to be true- at least at the beginning.
There's a bit of an unreliable narrator vibe going on- we get current chapters narrated by both Emily and Scott, but we only hear Nina's voice in reference to past events, so we rely on the others to portray Nina. There is a suspenseful and gothic feel to the book which was fun. That said, once I got into the story, the plot line was relatively straightforward. On the scare scale, this was about a 3 out of 5 (I don't do well with really scary books, so that was perfect for me!). It was an enjoyable weekend read.
Thanks to BookishFirst and Minotaur Books for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Twenty-something Emily's life is a mess. She wants to be an actress, but it's not working out, and she just lost her agent. Running late from an audition, she also loses her temp job and isn't sure how she's going to pay the bills and is getting desperate. But then, Scott, the head of the company where she was temping, offers her what sounds like a dream job. Can she please go stay with his wife, Nina, and young daughter, Aurelia, at their secluded, ocean-front estate in France? She will have a variety of duties, but, basically, will be a companion to the two of them. It sounds too good to be true. Once she's there, it feels too good to be true- at least at the beginning.
There's a bit of an unreliable narrator vibe going on- we get current chapters narrated by both Emily and Scott, but we only hear Nina's voice in reference to past events, so we rely on the others to portray Nina. There is a suspenseful and gothic feel to the book which was fun. That said, once I got into the story, the plot line was relatively straightforward. On the scare scale, this was about a 3 out of 5 (I don't do well with really scary books, so that was perfect for me!). It was an enjoyable weekend read.
Thanks to BookishFirst and Minotaur Books for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.