"What happens when you open your home to the perfect stranger?"

Anna is returning to work after having children. She is looking forward to once again being in the work force but has feat about leaving her children with a nanny. Anna and her husband meet Oaklynn, who seems perfect in every way! She is unflappable and and the children love her. But then, the kids start coming up with mysterious ailments and little things don't add up. Everyone but Anna seems to trust Oaklynn - is she what she appears to be or is she hiding secrets?
I enjoyed this story! It kept me turning the pages until the end.
Thank you to Andrew Hart, Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

This one really fooled me. And I love to be fooled. A wonderful mystery that will keep you guessing until the very last page. Too bad it had to end!

THE WOMAN IN OUR HOUSE is a multi viewpoint page-turner that evolves in gloriously unexpected ways. The first chapters are deceptive, lulling you into the rhythm of a happy family in a beautiful North Carolina home. However … the new nanny is not Mary Poppins, people are keeping secrets, and a pack of coyotes hunts nightly in the neighborhood. As it hurtles toward its breath-stealing finale, THE WOMAN IN OUR HOUSE blends a character study that you want to savor with a disturbing psychological thriller. I loved every page.

I enjoyed this book, the way you heard two versions of events and things that were going on. Definitely worth reading and enjoying. Thank you

Great story, pulls you right in, keeps you guessing from beginning to end. Full of twists and turns and unexpected developments. Even when you sort of suspect that something was going in a certain direction you get surprised about the WAY it goes there.
I really enjoyed this story and highly recommend it for those who like to be kept on their toes while enjoying a witty and entertaining read!

This book is very well written. It pulled me in almost right away and kept me interested until the very end. I will definitely be recommending this to the customers at my work!

After I read Tell Me A Secret, I’d more or less sworn off of books that tried to imitate the niche genre highlighted by Gillian Flynn. Which is why I picked up The Woman In Our House with some reservations. The blurb was intriguing, but would the book focus more on the thrill factor as I’d hoped or go down the rabbit hole of a main female character’s self-pity was something to be seen.

Thankfully, it met expectations. And made for a captivating read. Before I go ahead, I’m sending NetGalley a big thanks for an ARC of this book! The Woman In Our House comes out on 18 June 2019.

Genre: Suspense, Psychological thriller

Length: 347 pages

Overall Rating: 7 out of 10

Plot: 8 out of 10

Characterization: 8 out of 10

Primary Element: 7 out of 10 for its thrill and suspense

Writing Style: 8 out of 10

Part of a Series: No

Highlighted Takeaway:
The plot. Let’s just say, “You will not see some things coming at all!”

What I Liked:
Characterization, especially that of the main protagonist, Anna Klien, was really well done. She wasn’t over the top or too self-pitying. In fact, she was just the right amount of neurotic and self-aware to make it easy to empathize with her, and even associate with her in many places.

What I Didn’t Like:
Similar to Tell Me A Secret, the men were only present when convenient. Even Anna’s husband is more ‘her husband’ than ‘a supporting character’. Given that he actually had a role to play in the book, there should have been a little more focus on him.

Who Should Read It:
Anyone who enjoys a good suspense read, because it is surely that while definitely not being a ‘mess with your mind’ style psychological thriller. Those who like Mary Higgins Clark’s older books would probably like this one.

Who Should Avoid:
Anyone who doesn’t like books that focus on women as central characters. The women in this book aren’t unrealistic in all action and thought in this book, but it’s still predominantly a woman-centric story.

Read It For:
Reminding yourself that the world still has those people who don’t exactly believe in the “live and let live” ideology, and that things aren’t always as they seem.

This book kept me on the edge of my seat and just when I thought I knew what was happening, something changed ! The only problem was I felt like the characters needed a bit more developing, I didn't feel like I knew enough about the mom.

I give this 4 stars because it was creepy and I enjoyed it but it was a little predictable. Thankfully I never had a nanny and only family ever keep me as a kid! I would recommend this for one of my teens that wanted to get into reading. Avid readers can see the plot a mile ahead.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for allowing me to read this novel in exchange for an honest review.

I read The Woman In Our House in a couple sittings. I was hooked. It was very easy to follow and to get into. It has a terrifying premise to it. Ever considered inviting a woman into your home to watch your beloved children? This book will make you second guess that. The book had me feeling very uncomfortable at times waiting for what would happen next. I guessed one of the twists about half way through but still it had an unsettling feeling once it happened. I definitely recommend this book to anyone, but know if you have children it will make it even more of a gut wrenching story.

So initially I thought this was a pretty good book. We follow Anna (a young mother who is attempting to go back to work and is looking for a live in nanny) and Oaklynn (the nanny in question). Then Hart decides to follow other POV's in this one (Anna's husband Josh, a neighbor of the couple, a police officer, and a FBI agent). Not all of the voices worked for this one. It also didn't help that the book went from being an okay thriller to just throwing in another plot that didn't really work and then the ending which made everything just work out great while denouncing Nazis. Yeah that happened. I am still just baffled.

"The Woman in Our House" follows Anna Klien. Anna has two children and realizes one day (during an eclipse) that she needs to go back to work. She was initially happy about staying home, but is starting to realize she needs more than to be home with her two daughters. Anna's husband Josh agrees and they then start a search for a live-in nanny. After a suggestion that Anna hire from a nanny firm in Utah, Anna apparently picks an older woman named Oaklynn.

Hard pause right here. Do people not interview potential candidates face to face? I have two friends who have live in au pairs and I know they went through a round of interviews with the agencies they used and also they met the young women prior to hiring who also met their kids. I thought the way Hart set up this part of the book was a bit unbelievable to me.

Anna has a lot of insecurities about her life and marriage and after Oaklynn moves in, things get worse. I did like the idea of Anna being a literary agent, but the whole thing with the reveal about the book she was reading didn't work and I rolled my eyes at it. It comes back into play at the end of the book and I wanted to ask Hart did he really believe any reader would be reading this book after what we find out about the author? Has he talked to readers before?

I also really needed to get a better sense of character development with Anna. It took until I think the 10-15 percent mark to even find out that she was Japanese American. Probably didn't help that she and Josh were not really described. The author chose to describe Oaklynn though so why he didn't talk about Anna more in terms of description, height, etc. was odd. Now that I think of it, it's eventually mentioned the kids look "Asian" by another character, but I don't recall specifically if they are described.

Also odd to me was the fact that Hart didn't provide more narration showing why Anna felt apart from things. Was it because she was a Japanese American living in the South? Were the neighbors truly welcoming? Hart plays with this a bit via a secondary character, but I wanted more there. I think it would have been interesting to have some comments about a stay at home mom deciding to go back to work when it seemed the neighborhood they lived in was predominantly stay at home moms.

I thought the initial plot point with Oaklynn was okay, but then it turned into a mess towards the end. I didn't like the character full stop and there were too many plot holes to even be remotely believable. I won't get into them here because I don't want to spoil for potential readers.

The other characters are not that very developed. Hart returns to the character of Josh a few times, but honestly I thought he was kind of an idiot and I loathe books where the married couple seem to all of a sudden not talk. Hart course corrects with this one eventually, but it got old reading about.

The writing was okay though some parts of the book felt so random. Hart interjects racism into this work not with one, but two characters, and at least with one of the character's, it felt unnecessary. And also a bit too cartoon villain as I was reading. The book was also repetitive at times, especially when you get to Anna constantly talking about being eclipsed by her children and Oaklynn. At that point I wondered why Hart and the cover artist didn't just chose a cover with the sun being blotted out.

The flow wasn't that great, but that is probably because the book jumps around via other characters narratives. if Hart had just focused on Anna and Oaklynn the book would have been much tighter and the final reveals would have been more shocking. Due to inviting in some of the POVs you already knew that one of the characters was not as they appeared to be and then we got enough clues about another one.

This book takes place in North Carolina and Hart describes basically beautiful neighborhoods, but people not really knowing what is going on under the surface with their neighbors. I wish that Hart had looked into the other neighborhood characters more besides Mary Beth.

The ending was not believable at all. I literally asked two friends in law enforcement and one friend who is an attorney who went, yeah, that's not going to happen.

The Woman in Our House about a family who hire a live in nanny was an enjoyable read though predictable in its plot. It was a slow burner and took a couple of days longer than normal to get engrossed in it. By half way through I became hooked and wanted to know the exact ending.

My only really issue with it was that Anna, as the mum, was unlikeable. I never warmed to her at any point of the story. I believe she came across as quite cold and flat. Even in periods of panic it was still flat. Despite this it didn’t stop me reading it to the end.

Anna and Josh decide to get a nanny for their two young daughters. Anna has decided to go back to work as a literary agent. They do their research and use a reputable agency before settling on Oaklynn Hurst – a slightly older Morman lady. Oaklynn seems perfect. She is great with the girls, cleans, cooks and generally is the perfect housekeeper/nanny. Is she too perfect? Is Anna right to be suspicious when there are small incidents or is she just guilty for leaving her daughters with a nanny? Perhaps she is jealous especially when Oaklynn gets referred to as “my other mummy”?

I started this imagining a book very like “The Hand that Rocked the Cradle”. Although there are elements of this the comparison is not perfect. As a reader we know that Oaklynn is not who she says she is – Nadine has stolen her identity. However, we have no idea of her motives for doing so or why she needs to hide her identity. Then there is the police officer who is trailing her across the American states. Will he arrive on time before something dreadful happens?

I enjoyed this book though wasn’t that keen on the ending. It was a good read that flowed well. The characters are interesting enough without being bland and cardboard. There are also some side issues to provide extra interest and make you wonder exactly how they all fit into the bigger picture. This wasn’t, however, a “wow” book. It was a good read and a good thriller. There was suspense and the story was open to several interpretations as it progressed. I would certainly choose to read another boo by this author.

I received a free copy of this book via Netgalley.

Andrew Hart: The Woman in Our House. Video review by @jonesingforagoodbook at www.instagram.com/jonesingforagoodbook.

This book is so challenging to review. My review system is that I only go on how much I enjoy the book, I don't consider how skilled the writing is specifically... however, in this case, I enjoyed the book less because the writing had a lot of problems. Overall I enjoyed the book and was quite captivated by it, curious about how things would end, and what the agenda of various characters was. However, SO much of this book is filler. You know when you're in school and you have to write a 1000 word essay and you write about 750 and then just add random crap to fill it in? That was this book. It's already a quick read so I can see why they didn't edit this down, but it would have been better as an even shorter book, culled to the best parts. I'd give it 4* for how much I enjoyed reading it, but I'm taking off one star for the lack of editing. Andrew Hart, you need a better editor.

Thank you for the opportunity to review this book!

I have a mixed review... I thought the story was unique (as far as the nanny identity-stealing plot goes) and the characters were well developed - even the neighbors. I also appreciated that it was relevant to social issues in today’s society and had a bigger message, although it seemed sort of like an add on. It wasn’t the focus of the book, and while I understood the connection when it was brought up, it didn’t really flow. So A for effort and I liked what the message was, but it seemed a little forced.

For the plot, although it was a slow moving book, I interpreted it as more suspenseful and was continually captivated by the complex characters and their interactions, mainly Anna and Nadine. I found myself wanting to read more because they were pretty interesting. I also loved that Anna was a literary agent, because what bookworm doesn’t love reading a book about reading books?! That was a highlight for me.

As far as twists and turns go, it was mostly predictable, such as the boyfriend stalking her and Nadine being Ben the author. What did surprise me was that the boyfriend was sabotaging Nadine, but also that she had that complex. The latter was probably the most interesting part to me and I wish the book would have had a different turn that highlighted that or made it more a part of the plot. It would have been a little darker of a book, but it probably would have made it more of a wow factor at the end.

Looking back, I don’t really understand the point of her husband getting in trouble at work. To create suspense and make the reader think he’s having an affair? If that was it, I wasn’t sold in the slightest and figured something else was going on. I felt like it didn’t really add to the story. I didn’t feel connected to it or really care what he was doing.

The little touches to small interactions really made the tension in the story, like when Anna notices Nadine shift slightly in personality, or the little smile that she tries to put on but is actually hard core analyzing every step. Those little details and moments made the book for me and I think helped build the suspense more than anything.

The Woman in Our House deals with an issue that faces many women, how to balance children and a job.
Anne Klein is a mother of two young children who feels her identity is being overshadowed by her children, she and her husband hire a live in nanny although he has misgivings. The plain, heavyset woman, named Oaklyn who shows up at their door soon puts those to rest. She seems able to handle any task and is unflappable.
She is not who she seems however and soon after she arrives the children begin having repeated emergency room visits.
This story was really good at keeping you guessing and misdirecting when you thought you had it all figured out.

Warning spoilers ahead-

A few things I did not like-
The FBI agent who was inquiring about her has a beard- FBI are required to be clean shaven so that was a huge red flag.
When you find out who the bearded man is it would have been a perfect abusive husband stalks wife story without making him a racist Nazi which did not fit into the overall story as except for a gratuitous insult thrown in from the bitchy neighbor little about race is brought up on the book. The ditzy neighbor seemed like an uneccessary character and what happened to Mr Quietly? I may have missed it but I don’t remember the cat at the end.

It’s a great story of abuse, stalking and a woman’s desperate attempt to escape without the race/liberal labels thrown in.

Thank you NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The Woman in Our House just makes me more relieved we couldn't afford a nanny!

Honestly, I am not sure what to think. I spent most of the book thinking one thing but then it turning out to be something I wasn't really expecting.

It's a good read

This was a thriller that you won't want to put down. There were a couple things that I figured out before they were revealed but I definitely enjoyed the book.

This is a twisted psychological thriller that had my heart racing, as I was trying to deduce who Oaklynn or Nadine really was.
It took me until the end of the novel to understand, and it was not what I ever thought!
Could she truly hurt the two precious little girls she claims to love and is in charge of?
Will any parent who becomes entwined in this plot ever leave their children with anyone again?
Although, a bit slow in the beginning of this book, the tempo picked up full speed and by the last page, it all became clear and heart stopping!
Excellent!