The premise of The Woman in the House bothers me, so I do not recommend it. The writing deserves 4-stars.

This was fine. I liked the twists and turns of the story, but most of the characters kind of annoyed me.

Tense and thrilling

I was so ready for this book to be full of frivolous action and melodrama, and I was ready to sit back and lap it up.

Instead, I was met with a steady pace of tension-building, adrenaline-filled twists and turns. I had to put the book down a couple of times to have a glass of water and take some deep breaths!

I devoured this book in fewer than five hours and struggled to balance the need to read the next page with not wanting the book to end. The short chapters that flit between first and third person - all the while giving the reader a clear insight into the respective character’s mindset - keeps the story moving and fast-paced, and the reader cannot help but continue turning the pages.

You are not kept in the dark for too long as the mystery unravels in a satisfying, yet still tantalising way. The “big reveals” are well-timed, without being dragged out. I fell into a few of the traps set by the author, but right before the turn, realised with a wry satisfaction that I’d been had.

The women in this book are its driving force, and each of them feel like someone I know. I am intrigued and excited to read other books by this author, and noted the strong message he delivers in the final chapters.

A thoroughly deserved five-star read.

Firstly, thank you to NetGalley for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

For me, this book was not that great. There were so much more in the book that I didn't like/enjoy compared to what I did like. I really wanted to enjoy this book as the synopsis sounded so good, but it just wasn't for me.

Firstly, it was quite confusing understanding which chapter was for which characters perspective. Only some chapters were labelled with the character (Anna's perspectives) but the chapters from the other characters perspectives were not labelled so it was quite confusing.

Also I feel like it took quite a long time to get up and running, it just seemed to be such a slow start up and it wasn't until around 80% of the way through where I started to actually want to read more.

There wasn't really much to the book - the synopsis says that the children start to come down with the most puzzling illnesses and injuries, but for the most part of the book this was only one illness in the youngest child - of 'feverish symptoms' and then there were only 2 injuries and these were mainly in the last half of the book so I feel like the synopsis sounds much more intriguing and thriller like than the actual novel was.

Characters seemed to be just forgotten and left behind too - for example Anna's husband Josh was rarely even mentioned in the last 20% of the book and I feel like it would have been more intriguing if he was also involved in the ending.

The only thing I did like about this book was that there were a few chapters towards the end that were genuinely creepy and made me really on edge reading it!

Would you invite a stranger into your house to live and take care of your kids? That's the question at the heart of this book.

I liked that the book was written from alternating perspectives, Anna's and Oaklynn's, including flashbacks. There were several twists and turns throughout the story.

Anna has been a stay at home to her two girls, who are 9 months and 3 1/2 years old, since they were born. She decides that she wants to go back to work so they hire a nanny to live with them and take care of the girls. She starts looking through employment agencies and finds Oaklynn. Oaklynn accepts and moves from Utah to the families home in North Carolina. The girls instantly love her. Anna is a little more hesitant, but tells herself she's just being paranoid until things start to go terribly wrong.

I did not enjoy this novel.

There were to many Points of View from characters that I did not feel added anything to the plot.

The drama just seems to unlikely and I got the scenario very early on.

Rich family hire a nanny. Mummy starts feeling threatened by the nanny, and the reader already knows that the nanny is not who she says she is. Drama’s start happening with the children and mummy blames the nanny.

The nanny has a history and someone who is looking for the nanny finds her.

Just wasn’t engaging enough for me, so much so I started skim reading.

The Woman In Our House by Andrew Hart isn't my typical read. It's contemporary suspense done well. It's a bit dark and twisted (as suspense typically is.) Based on the premise that the nanny they hired isn't who she claims to be, I will admit there were things I didn't see coming... and other aspects that I had pinned down right away. As a mother, it gave me goosebumps. As a reader, I wanted to see what happened next. That being said, I found some of it was a little stilted. Give it a go if you are into twists and turns and twisted minds.

I received a complimentary copy of this title via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

The Woman in Our House is a thriller about how the decision of hiring a complete stranger to live in your home and take care of your children could be a life-changing decision that you may regret. Anna Klein and her husband relocated to the South and moved into a beautiful home with their two children Veronica and Grace. Anna is finally ready to get back to work as a literary agent and she and Josh decide to hire a live-in nanny to take care of the children. While they are nervous, Anna does a lot of research to find Oaklynn Durst, a Mormon from Utah with excellent references and soothing demeanor who is absolutely loved by children. Veronica and Grace soon adore Oaklynn but Anna becomes concerned when both children have unexplainable illnesses and injuries. While everyone, including Josh, is enthralled by Oaklynn, Anna is convinced that something suspicious is happening to her children and Oaklynn is somehow responsible. Anna begins to do some digging into Oaklynn's past and soon discovers that she is not who she says she is. However, Oaklynn is not the only who has been keeping secrets and those secrets may just cost someone their life.

I felt that the book started out strong, especially with revealing a twist so early. I liked the different perspectives that gave insight into the characters and their side of the story. However, the story quickly got derailed with too many subplots. The story became less focused, which made me start to lose some interest. And that ending? I'm not sure what the author was thinking but his social commentary along with completely implausible chain of events were just a mess. The story would have been just as thrilling without the extraneous subplots and the completely unnecessary white supremacist/racial angle.

The Woman in Our House could have been a 4-star rating as I liked the concept of the nanny stolen identity. Unfortunately, it dropped down to a 2.5 rating (rounded down to 2 stars). The author tried to fit too many implausible ideas into one story and it just didn't work.

Thank you to Netgalley and Lake Union Publishing for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.