DEVOTION started on such a high note, and I had such high hopes for it, but it just didn't stick the landing with me. The dread that I felt we were rolling towards was actually much more dreadful than I could have imagined, and the fun deflated out of the story like a balloon. The books hits a lot of the notes it needs to - poor girl in a wealthy world; single white female-ness, men sleeping with nannies - but falls into these cliches a bit clumsily making the second half of the book a bit of a letdown unfortunately. I'm not sure if I wanted more, or less, from these characters -- I just know it left me wanting.

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for this ARC.

While I thought this would be the next IT book, guilty pleasure, NYC thirst-quenching book...it was not. It was really...wordy. Too wordy. Like Stephen King wordy. I wanted more glitz and glamour, less stalker, unstable behavior. I'm sorry, I did not enjoy this.

I thought going in that this would be a good book of a woman who was a nanny to a wealthy family. It started off OK, but soon became almost voyeuristic and somewhat sick. I find there is a limit to what I can or will finish reading. I'm sorry, but this book was just not for me.

Did Not Finish

Ella takes on a nanny position to care for Lonnie and James' son, William. Ella becomes completely, dangerously, morbidly, obsessed with Lonnie.

This book.
Sometimes you love a book so much, that you really don't have the words for it.
For me, that is this book.

It's beautifully written.
It moved me.

I have nothing negative to say.

It's everything.

Ella is broke and down on her luck when she lands a job as a nanny for a wealthy couple. Since Ella and Lonnie are the same age, Ella begins to obsess over the differences in their lifestyles. This book is full of twists and turns and shows just how far jealousy can drive a woman!

Toxic friendship is a topic that has been written about many, many times. Devotion takes this premise and tries to add something new to the mix, but it's the same story. One woman has nothing, one has everything and there is a power struggle.

Neither Ella nor Lonnie are likable people. Ella's obsession with the Lonnie is troublesome...in that it's very clear that she is mentally unstable. Her obsession with Lonnie's possessions, from her lipstick to her closet, to her husband to her lovers. There's a strange psycho/sexual dynamic that is being forced where it actually feel very hollow.

I feel the story is there - but the emotion and .... oomph is missing.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

The poor girl meets rich girl turn frenemies in NYC is slowly becoming my guilty pleasure type of book. I can’t get enough of it. I’d never want to have that type of friend, but the constant guessing of whether the friendship is real or not is exciting. I’ve seen this compared to SOCIAL CREATURE and I’d say that’s a fair comparison, though not quite as compelling. While I was expecting more of a thrill, this one reads quick enough that I didn’t realize what I’d been missing until I was done and reflected.

I received an adopt. All thoughts are my own,

This story was odd.
Not something I am used to reading.
A little more nitty gritty then I even like. Ella started off as someone I didn’t really like. She immediately has sex with a man after he buys her a meal. Really?!?!?
BUT I powered through and continued on.
Nope.
Didn’t like Lonnie or James either.
I skipped around till I finished, but this was not the book for me.

This book had promise but unfortunately for me did not really captivate my attention. It started off with some intrigue but seemed to drag on at parts. It took some concentration to continue reading.

this book...think single white female- kinda sorta but more dark

so many feelings...

i'll start by saying that despite what i'm about to say, i think it's worth the read

i tore through book - it's written with a quick fast paced format- lean and without a bunch of extras
it's extremely well written with a bit of an 80's movie feel to it (not a bad thing)

HOWEVER...

i really wished that a few chapters would have been told from Lonnie's POV and that ending... yeah i wasn't a fan

again - overall it was good and i would read another book by this author

i first heard of this book at BEA and was excited to receive the galley. I may not be the intended demographic b/c I didn't feel connected to the characters or compelled by the story.

'Did I have a suspicion that she might not be real? Was I grasping for evidence?'

Devotion, more the mask of it, tells the story of Ella’s envy for Lonnie, whom has hired her as Nanny for her sixteen-month old son, William. Hungry and broke, this is a step up from wondering where her next meal will come from, no more would she have to be a smiling fool (hostess), suffer part time jobs girls with an unfinished college education migrate to, sleep with rough older men just for a meal, now she would know how the privileged lived. It isn’t long before Ella is caught up in the magnetism that Lonnie exudes, simply by existing. She doesn’t yet know Lonnie is hungry too, but for some elusive thing that her abundant life can’t seem to give her. Nor can her husband James.

Ella studies the nature of Lonnie with a keen eye, it’s almost scientific, from how she smells, the nuances of her beautiful face, the carelessness of her impulses (the first being hiring Ella in an act of blind faith), the magnetism that draws everyone into her orbit. Why she begins writing everything down about her days spent in the home, she cannot say. Stealing objects that would never be missed, as if taking pieces of Lonnie and her glorious life with her could rub off on Ella, make her own less mediocre. Watching… always watching.

With husband James by her side they make the perfect couple, and how can someone who struggles just to keep a roof over their head and crumbs in their belly not resent such easy wealth? Not feel jealous of the freedom to ‘dabble’ in her talents the way Lonnie does? How can Ella do anything other than be seduced by every bit of Lonnie just like everyone else? She’s looking, she’s trying to find the cracks. She doesn’t fully believe anyone can be this perfect, this happy, right?

Upon meeting family friend Carlow, she notes the desire he feels for Lonnie smoldering in his eyes and it dawns on her that maybe Lonnie has some things to hide. Lines between friendship and hired help blur as Lonnie confides in Ella, welcomes her into the circle, urges her to emulate her even. At times, it seems Lonnie would cast off her skin and let Ella walk off in it, anything to be free of all her blessings, privilege. When she and Carlow escape into a room upon his visits, when James is away at work, it is unspoken that Ella won’t say anything, will be the keeper of her betrayal. She can’t blame her, attracted to Carlow herself, longing for a taste, to know what it feels like to be wanted as much as Lonnie.

Lonnie misses her carefree days, when she had the freedom to “do things”, not like her life now, motherhood, being a wife, just stuck here in the brownstone bored. She has to grab for the thrills when they present themselves and Ella is someone she can have fun with. Both being motherless , in a sense, and the same age they find a common bond, but their worlds are wildly different, that of the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’. The things Lonnie seems to innately know make Ella feel inferior, are the wealthy just born knowing how to navigate the world? It doesn’t matter if Ella slips on Lonnie’s clothes, or kisses the same men, she will never belong, never be able to emanate whatever it is the gives Lonnie her allure.

It is when the women travel to an artists’ retreat, staying in a cabin on a lake in the Adirondacks that Lonnie really lets loose and tries on a different role for size, that of the help. It’s all fun and games, but makes Ella all the more aware of the vast divide between them. There is some sort of sadness, some nameless thing lurking beneath Lonnie’s surface that troubles her. At times silly and playfully childish, as when they play with a Ouija board, and other times sullen, distant. As closely as Ella has studied her subject, she doesn’t understand anything. Lonnie uses her, but so too does she use Lonnie. She isn’t exactly the loyal subject a seemingly spoiled princess demands. She has reckless moments, many of which Ella wants wants nothing more than to be a part of, anything to escape sober reality. It’s so much easier to bury herself in this life of effortless pleasures. She doesn’t want it to end, to go back to her dull life.

Ella is getting too involved in the couple’s marriage, and lines will be crossed that she can’t come back from. Lonnie scares her with how careless she can be, and she doesn’t know how to help her, if she even should. She is starting to feel like she will be cast off at some point, and it would mean nothing to Lonnie, to people like her it never does. At turns attentive, caring and a second later envious, jealously imagining she could easily eclipse Lonnie’s talents “if only I’d had the time and resources.” There is a competitive beast within many female friendships, more so when one has so much more power.

No one likes those who encroach on their privacy, the rich even less. Lonnie isn’t as together as she seems, in the end she may surprise even Ella.

The novel was engaging, everyone is self-destructing in their own special way, but I hoped for more from the ending. I felt I was left adrift, wondering… okay, now what? Much like Ella.

Publication Date: August 13, 2019

Harper Collins

Ecco

This was a quick read for me because I wanted to know what was going to happen, how was this story going to conclude? Devotion by Madeline Stevens takes place in New York, the Upper East Side where a strange woman named Ella takes on a job as the nanny for a wealthy couple. Ella immediately gravitates towards the wife, Lonnie and develops a near-infatuation with her.

Ella is unstable, Lonnie is unhappy which seems to be the perfect catalyst for Ella’s increasingly strange behavior.

Ella is flat broke: wasting away on bodega coffee, barely making rent, seducing the occasional strange man who might buy her dinner. Unexpectedly, an Upper East Side couple named Lonnie and James rescue her from her empty bank account, offering her a job as a nanny and ushering her into their moneyed world. Ella’s days are now spent tending to the baby in their elegant brownstone or on extravagant excursions with the family. Both women are just 26 – but unlike Ella, Lonnie has a doting husband and son, unmistakable artistic talent, and old family money.

Ella is mesmerized by Lonnie’s girlish affection and disregard for the normal boundaries of friendship and marriage. Convinced there must be a secret behind Lonnie’s seemingly effortless life, Ella begins sifting through her belongings, meticulously cataloguing lipstick tubes and baby teeth and scraps of writing. All the while, Ella’s resentment grows, but so does an inexplicable and dizzying attraction. Soon Ella will be immersed so deeply in her cravings – for Lonnie’s lifestyle, her attention, her lovers – that she may never come up for air.



The writing is rich and descriptive, I liked the book and the setting but I didn’t like the character of Ella.

Get it here. Due out next week!

It will be obvious from the beginning (even from the blurb, really) that this isn't going to end well but how it get there, that's the story. Ella's not doing ok in New York City and then Lonnie hires her as a nanny. They are the same age but come from and live in different spaces, both financially and culturally. Lonnie and her husband James seem to have it all and Ella, nothing. Told from Ella's point of view, this is really about the devolution of two women. It's a slow burn and even when you think you know what's happening, no spoilers. Ella is not likable in the least but is she a reliable narrator? She's certainly well written. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. An entertaining and twisty read.

I worry this book will be overlooked or people will be disappointed in it, because it’s being discussed as a sort of sister to SOCIAL CREATURE. There are certainly elements DEVOTION shares with SOCIAL CREATURE – namely, its focus on the relationship between two women of similar age, but of very different social/class status – but these books are totally different in terms of both genre and what they are attempting to articulate. SOCIAL CREATURE is a dark thriller about a toxic female friendship that devolves into creepiness and crazytown with the help of social media. DEVOTION, however, is a much quieter exploration of a type of complicated, obsessive love rooted in obscure desire.

Elle, our main character, is a young woman in NYC with a bit of a self-destructive streak and a willingness to bend the truth to survive. She becomes a nanny for William, Lonnie’s son, and quickly becomes focused on Lonnie who is a bit strange herself. Elle watches as Lonnie starts an affair and seems to struggle with a lack of purpose. She’s not especially interested in motherhood or writing her book or the men who both seem to be in love with her. She’s romantic and spends quite a bit of time dreaming about her past lives or contemplating other versions of her current life.

Lonnie is some sort of strange cipher for these three characters (Elle, Lonnie’s husband, and Lonnie’s lover). I think they’re all hyperfocused on her, but not on her as a person so much as on her as a thing provoking emotions in them. I wonder if Elle sees Lonnie as a sort of mirror – she sees herself reflected in Lonnie, but in a way that isn’t quite right, which is interesting to her. There’s a desire there to control the difference. To manipulate it. To touch it. To understand it.

Elle spends her time cataloging Lonnie’s possessions, reading her journals, wearing her clothing, slipping in and out of her identity, and connecting with the men who believe they love her. Does she want to be Lonnie? Is she in love with Lonnie? She certainly yearns for something from Lonnie, but then all of the characters in the book are yearning for something from Lonnie. Lonnie seems to be the only character whose motivations and desires are obfuscated by the desires of those around her.

I feel the need to say here there are disturbing events and sex scenes towards the end of this book with questions about consent that may disturb people. I have questions about Lonnie in general. Is she a victim of all of these people so devoted to knowing her and being with her? What are the implications here about devotion and desire as unconscious tools of manipulation and violence? Who is Lonnie? This seems to be a question Elle is focused on answering and yet I don’t know that we ever really understand very much about Lonnie beyond the attraction and repulsion others experience when near her. Because it’s both — all of these characters want Lonnie on some level, but they also seem to hate her for it.

I think its notable this book is named DEVOTION and not something more descriptive. I see the title as a play on the word as a form of love and loyalty as well as a religious observance. These characters are devoted to Lonnie and I think we’re meant to ask if devotion and love are the same thing. I get the impression this book is what Elle has written in service to Lonnie – it’s her final act of almost religious devotion, of love, of yearning even in the face of abandonment. There’s a spooky story in the book about a church filled with nuns following a cult leader who eventually kills them, and at some point Elle says she believes Lonnie would have joined that church. But in Elle’s pursuit of Lonnie – of understanding her, of articulating her, of having her – she proves herself to be a member of a religion with Lonnie at its core. And when your intended cult leader disappears what do you do with your devotion?

The nanny novel is really gaining popularity this year. As a nanny myself, I always resonate with these more strongly than other readers might.... this one, though, not at all. This book focuses on the nanny-child relationship little to none, and instead morphs into a sexual obsession with the parents. Not my favorite.

Ella is barely making it in NYC when a wealthy couple decides to hire her as a nanny. While becoming immersed in their wealthy lifestyle and taking care of their baby Ella realizes that both her and the baby's mom, Lonnie, are 26 years old. This throws Ella down a crazed rabbit hole trying to discover why their lives are so different--insisting to herself that there has to be something that Lonnie is hiding. A secret lifestyle. Ella becomes obsessed and begins picking up on character traits of Lonnie and it doesn't look like she will be emerging from this rabbit hole any time soon.

When reading the synopsis of this book on NetGalley I was instantly intrigued by the story line. How far will someone go to find something out? How much further will they go in order to fit in? I was completely unprepared for just how creepy this book is! This book starts out by allowing the reader to learn more about Ella, one of the main characters, and during this time you become to really empathize with her. Quickly she meets this family who hire her as a nanny and it still seems so normal. Then, I'm not sure exactly when, the plot turns down a creepy road; but, you cannot seem to be able to determine why it's so creepy. Is it because Ella is becoming more and more obsessed with the mother of the little boy she is nannying? Is it because Lonnie is just a strange character that you never seem to be able to figure out? Is it because of how the two interact with one another? You really never figure out just what makes this book as creepy as it is; at least, I didn't. Soon enough you don't want to put the book down because there are so many strands of this story that you just need to find out the ending to.

On Goodreads I rated this book a 3/5 because the ending is not very clear. Don't get me wrong you know what happened to an extent but it leaves you questioning on if everything that happened during the story was on purpose or if Ella truly fell down a rabbit hole that she just couldn't get out of. This story is told from Ella's perspective and you get to know her thoughts and personality...or at least you think you do. With everything that takes place you're left at the end wondering if you even knew at all. This is one advanced reader's copy that I am so happy to have been gifted from HarperCollins and NetGalley because it definitely immerses you in the rabbit hole as well. It truly creeped me out until the very last page.

This book is released August 13, 2019 so keep a look out for it!

Devotion was a bit all over the place for me. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to like Ella or Lonnie. Both girls have severe identity issues. Ella - obsessing over Lonnie's lifestyle and Lonnie - a character I never was really able to truly connect with. There were blurbs in the text that didn't appear to make much sense and the story line fell flat to me. I wanted to like it - the premise was interesting. I thought it would be more of a thriller. I think there is something here - just needs to have some more understanding of the characters and their background perhaps?

I'll be honest and say that toxic female friendships are a guilty pleasure of mine in books. To see how nasty one woman can be to another all while under the guise of friendship in an effort to upstage or usurp the other is like book crack. I can't get enough.

When I saw Devotion pop up on NetGalley I didn't even hesitate to request it but oh wait? I can only wish for it? So wish I did and Ecco granted my wish which rarely happens to me. What luck!

Ella is a broke 26 year old woman living in NYC and sleeping with men solely to have a meal put in her stomach. Imagine her surprise when she interviews with a wealthy family for a nanny position and they take her on immediately with hardly any questions asked. She feels as if her life is suddenly taking a turn in the right direction.

She immediately becomes obsessed with Lonnie the mother in which she was hired to help. What you as reader are wondering with each flip of the page is: does Ella love Lonnie or hate her? Is she trying to be friends with her or is she trying to become her. Lonnie takes for granted everything she has where as Ella can only dream of such a lifestyle of leisure.

Needless to say things are going to get complicated.

I really wanted to love this book but it fell a bit short of my expectations. The comparisons to Social Creature had me so excited but this book isn't nearly as dark or shocking. In fact, after turning the last page I was kind of wondering what the point of this book is. If you want a bird eye view of to a dysfunctional friendship then you will find that here but that's really it. There wasn't any type of shocking twist or any OMG moments. There was no I can't believe that happened or that he or she did this. It just sort of fizzled out into the ether. Still the writing is sharp and I was compelled to read to the end I just wish there was a bigger payout for getting there. 3 stars!

Thank you to NetGalley and Ecco for proving me with a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I enjoyed how this book looked at obsession and jealousy between women. The writing was natural and evocative -- I could really picture everything. But I guess I was kind of expecting something more? In the end this book was pretty much just a character study, which I don't mind, but the way it was set up (how we knew from the prologue that it wouldn't end well and Lonny would leave) made me expect everything would come to a more dramatic climax. Overall I liked the experience of reading this book but the ending left me feeling like I was missing something.