Ummm WTF did I just read?! This book was amazing. I loved every second of it and I'm running to read anything else I can find by Casey Kelleher!

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Wow! I read novel in about 6 hours straight. Keeping my interest from the moment I started, this book was a roller coaster. Every time I thought I knew what was happening and that I had the twist guessed, something else changed.

The story focuses on two women: Sasha and Emily. Their alternating perspectives kept me intrigued and on edge as I quickly devoured their narratives.

Sasha is a woman on a mission to make sense of her missing memories. When she gets to her childhood home, it is occupied by a new family similar to her own. She quickly becomes mistaken for the family’s new nanny and accepts the job realizing that she can snoop at her own leisure if she stays there

Emily is a woman haunted by her past, living in a halfway house after being finishing her 20 year sentence at a mental health prison.

How do these stories connect? Are these narrators telling the truth? What is being left out? Find out all and more by reading this fantastic book!

I will say that in my ARC there were some spelling/grammar mistakes. Hopefully these have been fixed in the published copy!

What do you do when you find out everything about yourself and your life is a total lie? My mother wrote me a letter telling me that I am adopted but then passed away before I could ask any questions or get any answers. I have to find out what happened and who I am so I go back to the home that I thought I was born in only to be mistaken for the new nanny I decided to play along so I can try to find out about my past that is such a secret for all my life. I quickly learn that Cecelia, the mother of the children is a horrible person and the children are terrified of her. What is going on behind closed doors in this family and who am I ?

A great read. Mistaken identity leads to a new job. An unbalanced mother and a fake nanny leads to a great dark and twisty story.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC of this book. This was a rollercoaster read! The beginning was a bit slow but then BAM!! It picks up and grabs you and won't let go. This thriller kept me up reading all night. Grab a copy!

Why did I just read???? This book was everything I live about a suspense/thriller. This book kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time. I’m definitely going to be thinking about this book for a while!

Thank you to NetGalley, Bookouture and Casey Kelleher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

This one intrigued me from just the title! What kind of juicy book was I getting myself into?? As I began reading, it was a bit of a slow start - however I stuck it out and the book was exploding to life before my eyes.

Several twists and turns later, I arrived at the end of the story that will leave you reeling!

I loved loved loved this amazing book. I could not put it down. it gripped me from the first page and I just had to keep on reading. A wonderfully tense and thrilling, rollercoaster of a read. Loved it.

The story is mainly told from the perspectives of Emily and Sasha. Emily is struggling with mental health problems. Sasha is (unexpectedly) starting a new job as the babysitter to two children. As the reader, I felt like I didn’t know what was going on for the first half of the book and tried to find connections between these two characters. After that, it came together quickly. I am not sure how I feel about the ending.
Thank you to NetGalley and Bookotoure!

Sasha heads to her old family home to find answers about her past but is mistaken for a nanny. The owner of the house invites her in and leaves her in charge of her children while she heads off to work. But Sasha begins to remember the past as well as facing problems in the present...
The Babysitter's Secret is a psychological thriller set in the UK.
The book is written mainly from two perspectives: Sasha in the third person and Emily in the first person (and then later from Cecelia's third person as well). Sasha is pretending to be from a babysitter agency and inserts herself into Cecelia's family so she can move into the house and search for answers about her own past. Meanwhile Emily has been released from a psychiatric unit and is trying to live independently. She constantly hears a child screaming and thinks that her carers are trying to get her locked up again.
There are some serious issues dealt with in this book. Cecelia's mum guilt at the beginning is so easy to relate to as a working mother myself. Emily's mental health struggles are very emotive and don't make for comfortable reading but felt very authentic. Sasha's past trauma has severe implications for her own mental health as she has flashbacks.
I had a few theories about how the two main characters relate to each other, and one of them was correct. As the midway point approached I was pretty certain of how things would link together but the author couldn't resist a twist even in the final chapter.
The Babysitter's Secret is a tense and emotional psychological thriller.

The Babysitter's Secret was just not the book for me. Other reviewers have liked it for twists and surprise reveals, so I may be outlier. But I literally just kept reading to see if I would like it any better. Towards the end where everything is revealed, I did get more involved, but it was not enough for me to rate this an enjoyable read..

This book had two POV, Emily and Sasha. I found Emily's story, that of the unreliable narrator annoying, because she rambles nonsense for so long but we don't really know where she is going with it, other than a child was killed in her past, and she may have killed it. Sasha's story was definitely more interesting, and the development of her character more interesting to watch evolve. I think I just don't like stories where the main person is a bit psycho, therefore unreliable and unlikable. There are many that disagree with me, so this is just a personal preference.

Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to read an ARC is exchange for an honest review. This was 2.5 for me, but I'm rounding up to 3 stars.

"This family is hiding much more than the truth…"

Sasha arrives at 64 Maple St. hoping to recover memories at her childhood residence. After her mother's death she discovered she had been adopted and can't remember her past from a certain age. When Cecelia, owner of the home mistakes Sasha for the new nanny, Sasha sees this as the perfect opportunity to explore the house for clues about her past.

There's also Emily, psychiatric patient at a nearby hospital who was convicted of a gruesome murder 20 years prior. She's unstable, constantly hears a young girl crying, and like Sasha - desperate to make peace with her troubled past.

It had been a while since I read a solid domestic thriller. This one checked all the boxes for what I was in the mood for: multiple POV with unreliable narrators, dark subject matter, twists that kept me questioning what I thought I knew, etc. I read this in one day so I definitely recommend adding to your bingeable thriller list. But please check TWs before diving in because there's multiple.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for allowing me access to an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

The Babysitter’s Secret by Casey Kelleher

Published: May 24, 2023
Bookouture
Pages: 318
Genre: Psychological Fiction
KKECReads Rating: 4/5
I received a copy of this book for free, and I leave my review voluntarily.

Casey Kelleher was born in Cuckfield, West Sussex, and grew up as an avid reader.
Whilst working as a beauty therapist and bringing up her three children together with her husband, Casey penned her debut novel Rotten to the Core. Its success meant she could give up her day job and concentrate on writing full-time. She has since written fourteen books.

“What kind of a woman could do that to a child?”

Emily wants to avoid remembering her past. It’s dark, painful, and wrong. Sasha wants to learn more about where she came from. Who was she? Why can’t she remember? Cecilia is trying to be the best parent she can be, but she struggles to find balance.

This was a wild ride. The way this story was layered was smart, and the plot was intricately presented, enticing me to keep reading.

The characters in this book were all well done. The depth, detail, and emotion were brilliant. There was so much humanity represented in various forms.

There are so many twists and turns in this book. I have whiplash, but the ride was worth every moment. I couldn’t put this book down- the storyline was engaging, and the pacing made finding a stopping point difficult.

The use of time and coincidence was clever. Revenge is a great motivator, as is learning to act normal.

Casey Kelleher you certainly kept me awake on a red eye trans Atlantic flight. This read was definitely a thriller - somewhat unbelievable but so very chilling. The two children stole my heart immediately. Hopefully no child will ever have to experience the horrors they did. Emily and Sasha both tell the story from their POV and at first I was trying to force a connection but then just read on and eventually the connection is made. Cecelia left me frustrated and a bit angry. I also found her to be quite naive as it seemed to take her too long to realize what was going on with her two children.
The ending came fast and furious and luckily my gasps were not heard by my peacefully sleeping seat mates.
Many thanks to Casey Kelleher, Bookouture, and NetGalley for affording me the opportunity to read an arc of this recently published domestic thriller. The perfect read for those who love edge of your seat thrillers. Looking forward to more from this author.

I found The Babysitter's Secret to be a good read. It was a bit of a slow burner to begin with but once it got going I really got into it and it kept me guessing all the way to the end.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for my ARC.

My Review
Casey Keller is an author we all should read or a least have her on your must get to list.
She writes cracking good stories that you will struggle to leave down.
We meet Sasha & Emily in this story...
Sasha has had a troubling childhood and decides to go back to where she was born to try make sense of it all.
She knocks on the door of the house and the woman who answers mistakes her for the new nanny. She doesn't correct her and soon finds herself in the centre of this young family's life and all is not what it seems.
Emily, I'm not sure what I made of her. She is certainly a troubled person.
Memories are a huge part to this story and sometimes what we remember from our childhood can be distorted.
Emily keeps hearing a child crying and we begin to wonder is her recovery in jeopardy.
Will she need to return to the psychiatric unit she spent time in after the death of her young son.
I felt there were so many threads to this story, each one keeping me on absolute tenterhooks.
Just when I thought I had it solved, author Casey Kelleher sent me down another path, another theory...
Oh but I thoroughly enjoyed her characters and her cracking storyline. So well worth your time...

Writing a review to this is quite hard for me. Perhaps it’s just my perspective on the whole story but I found it confusing.

I thought I would have a lightbulb moment at the end but it left me feeling in the dark.

I would love to hear other people’s opinions please. Only three stars unfortunately because the ending just messed with my head.

It took a while for this one to kick in, but my god when it did it didn't stop!

I had no idea that the outcome was going to be what it was, so it was certainly a shocker when it was revealed. My heads still trying to process wtaf I just read.

Cecilia, Emily and Sasha were heavily flawed characters, all of them hiding secrets, and boy did they make for an intriguing read.

The Babysitter's Secret was dark, suspenseful and absolutely compelling, kinda like a tube of pringles, once you pop you don't wanna stop.

Another winner from Kelleher and I can't wait to see what she delights us with next.

Many thanks to Bookouture for my tour spot.

Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Want a thriller that leaves you guessing all the way to the last page? Then this is the book for you. Told in alternating perspectives, you have no idea what is happening and who is at fault.

This book is very well-written. The tension is great, and the pacing is perfect. You don't know who to believe, but you know that, when everything is revealed, the story will be crazy. And it was.

This is my first time reading anything by Casey Kelleher, but I will definitely read more of her books now.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5557543981

3.5 stars — if you’re into uncovering family secrets with unreliable narrators — this is for you!

This book alternates between the POVs of two women — Emily and Sasha. Emily has been institutionalized for a crime she won’t talk about, and Sasha has recently learned she was adopted and returns to her first home to see if she can remember anything about her biological family. Sasha is trying to remember and Emily would do anything to forget — and as the plot carries on we find out how the two women are connected.

Pieces of this were a little choppy with the dual narration, and the final twist didn’t feel all that twisty, but this was a quick read and an interesting plot development.