“Love. The two women looked at each other, and that most loaded of words hung between them, stuffed full of misconceptions willful and otherwise, a word that meant everything and nothing.”

I almost gave this book 2.5*, but the more I wrote the review, I held firm on 2 because this book was sooooo boring! All the drama was given away in the beginning, and there was no big twist, except for one in the end, and it wasn't even very exciting. I halfway tuned out through the last hour of the audiobook because I was just over it.

Anna is a wealthy suburban mom who needs help caring for her two small children. Oaklynn Durst is a Mormon nanny from Utah who seems to fit the profile of everything Anna and her husband could ever want for their live-in help. She is attentive, mild-mannered, knowledgeable, and dotes on the children. But Oaklynn (PS--how dumb is that name??) isn't who she seems to be... Very early in the book, the author gives away that the REAL Oaklynn Durst, the Mormon nanny, goes on a mission trip, and her friend Nadine takes over her identity for unknown nefarious purposes. So the whole time the story goes on, the reader knows "Oaklynn" is Nadine, and you are waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Mysterious things begin to happen to Anna's daughters, and it makes Anna look like a bad mother and Oaklynn look like the hero. She doubts herself, resents her daughters' trust in Oaklynn, and trouble brews. There is a minor plotline with a book Anna is editing that mirrors reality, and I found that really implausible. Because you know Oaklylnn is Nadine the whole time, you figure out why she's doing it and the fact that she'll be caught, and so there is virtually no suspense. Each time a daughter is hurt, it's just awful because you wish you could stop it.

The ending literally comes out of left field, hearkening right back to the beginning of the book, and feels forced. Definitely skip it.