Thanks to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley 😊

Life just really isn't going well for Emily, she can't keep a job and has to constantly resort to asking her adopted parents for money. When she is asked by her just recently ex boss to go to his family home in France and help out his estranged wife Nina and daughter Aurelia, Emily jumps at the chance. It all seems too good to be true, and after a while Emily starts to realise there's something not right with Nina and Aurelia😬

4.5⭐- I loved this book, it was an excellently written piece of psychological thriller escapism! The story and characters were great and I could really visualise it all and the twist was brilliant! Fabulous summer read, so grab a copy when released!

While I started off feeling unsure about the book, it didn't take long for me to be drawn into the story.

What ultimately impressed me was the way the author managed to create such a surreal situation for the protagonist. And yet, I found it believable.

I was also impressed by Anna Downes writing style, which captured the voice of an insecure 20-something quite well.

Great read!

First, a thank you to NetGalley for sharing the ARC in exchange for an honest review. And, to be honest, I really enjoyed this weird little whack-job of a novel and I can see it flying off the shelves at our library this summer. As characters, Scott and Nina are incredibly strange -- and strange to process, which renders them a bit more unbelievable. However, in a weird way, their sheer improbability is part of this novels demented charm. Emily on the other hand (as well as Aurelia) are far more empathetic in their ignorance and sketchy situations. The real beauty of the novel though is the lushly evocative French setting (you can totally picture yourself there) and while the conclusion is somewhat predictable, it's ultimately of little consequence when you're looking for some twisted summer fun on the beach (or just wanting to imagine yourself there.)

How to describe this book? Well written with deep insight into characters. The story is twisted and left me feeling unsettled. Hopefully there will be a sequel following Emily’s life as well as “A”. I just feel like I need to know to wrap this up in my head. Read it, I’d love to know what you think.

Emily loses her job and apartment in one day. Along comes Scott who wants to hire her to come work for him as a housekeeper/babysitter on his very isolated island. Emily realizes that Scott and his wife Nina have huge secrets they are hiding and everything is not how it seems. I read this quickly as I needed to know what was going to happen! I received an advanced readers copy and all opinions are my own.

Emily has just lost his job as secretary when Scott, the CEO of the company where she had worked, makes her an offer. A job as a housekeeper at his french summer house. She accepts and travel to the place. But besides liking Nina and Aurelia, Scott’s wife and daughter, something gonna make Emily rethink his choice. I think this is a good thriller but in my opinion it took to much pages to get in the real action of the story. I really recommend it for people who is starting to read thriller books because it doesn’t have much blood and violence.

I took time for me to get into this slow moving story. The story line just didn’t hook me and at times I found myself skimming. The heroine was hard to connect with and I found her unlikeable. The author describes France beautifully and I could imagine myself there. But the ending was predictable, yet rushed. Thanks to Netgalley for the arc.

The Safe Place is a thriller at a breakneck pace. I had no idea what was coming, or who to trust, at any point in time, and I could not put it down.

This was just an okay read. A bit far fetched and not especially well written. I found it hard to believe the heroine started out being slacker then turned very quickly to a Jane of all trades. It took a lot to finish this mystery.

this book was surprisingly good, while i guess part of it after awhile, it took an interesting journey to get there. left with some questions though, would love to talk to someone about how they interpreted it a part of it. but was engrossing, well written and had characters you cared about

After getting fired from her job, Emily is broke and desperate for something new. When her former boss, Scott, offers her a job as a housekeeper and au pair for his 6-year-old daughter at their home in France, it seems too good to be true. Emily arrives at the remote home, Querencia, and meets Scott’s seemingly perfect wife, Nina, and their incredibly peculiar daughter, Aurelia. Upon arrival at the French estate, Emily is overwhelmed by its beauty, but soon realizes how isolated they are. Emily is without cell phone service, and alone with just Nina and Aurelia, and their stoic, unpleasant handyman Yves. While Nina is friendly to Emily, there is something off about her, and quiet Aurelia can flip the switch at any second to violent tantrums. The family is obviously hiding something, and as time goes on Emily grows more and more suspicious.

As a character, Emily is naïve and senseless at times, which was frustrating but also expected in a thriller. The book is told from multiple perspectives, primarily by Emily, but also from Scott’s and Nina’s points of view. The book was an incredibly fast read, and I enjoyed the weird dynamic and relationships between the characters. Overall, the novel was a little predictable, but still suspenseful. This is a definitely one of those “can’t put it down” books!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

This book, which is told from alternating POV's, was slow paced but interesting. I initially found Emily to be less than likable in the sense that she is somewhat shallow and thoughtless but she did grow on me over time. She's getting nowhere in life when she is offered an opportunity to be the au pair at a remote estate. With little other prospects, she accepts. Things get really strange after that. Once she moves to take her new job, virtually all contact with the outside world is cut off. The child has an unusual illness and the behavior of the family she lives with is strange, to say the least. It's dramatic and mysterious and so many things happen that just make your spidey sense tingle. A good read if you like a mystery with a slow burn.

This isn't the kind of thriller that throws you headlong into nonstop action. It starts gently, introducing us to Emily and then Scott, and showing us how things unfold. And the story was compelling, at least to me.
<p>I loved the way the tense atmosphere built up bit by bit. The theme of the naive young woman drawn into a domestic situation that alternately alarms her and then reassures her that she's just imagining things, struck echoes in my mind with gothic novels such as Daphne DuMaurier's Rebecca and Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. Of course, the reader knows Emily is not imagining the danger she's in, and is internally screaming at her to get out while she still can.</p><p>There aren't a lot of twists, but there is a reveal about two-thirds of the way through that I didn't see coming, and from there the pace and action both sped up, making the book very hard to put down from this point on.</p><p>It was only the ending that prevented this from being a 5 star book. It just didn't quite ring true somehow, and wasn't as satisfying a payoff as the quality of the rest of the novel had led me to expect.</p><p>Even so, this is still a very solid 4 star novel for me. The characters are wonderfully imagined, fully fleshed out and fascinating. The writing is really good, too. The mystery kept me enthralled right to the end.</p><p>If you're after a thrill-a-minute ride and explosive twists, this isn't the thriller for you. But if you're in the mood for a slow burning, atmospheric, psychological mystery, I'd encourage you to pick this one up.</p>

I couldn't get into this book. The story moved slowly, the characters were not believable nor very engaging. By the time I got to the end, I had lost interest in the main plot and didn't really care about any of the characters.

Emily is at the end of her rope. She's just lost her temporary job as a receptionist because she was absent too many times, going to acting auditions that don't work out. She's been evicted from her awful little apartment. Her adoptive parents won't loan her any more money... Then, out of the blue, she gets the offer for a job that seems too wonderful and perfect to be true.



The owner of the company she was just fired from wants her to work at his remote estate in France. His wife, Nina, needs an assistant, someone to help with her projects and some light housework and free up more time for Nina to spend with their daughter who has severe issues with her health.



Something is wrong on the property, something more sinister than the underlying reek of mold that fills the two houses, or the fact that distance and the lack of phone reception completely cuts them off from the outside world. But Emily is able to ignore that as she enjoys long afternoons by the pool sharing bottles of wine and enjoying Nina's fantastic cooking. Nina has created a haven for her little family and Emily is happy to be there with them until the signs that something is very wrong become too blatant for her to ignore.



I enjoyed this one. Emily, despite the fact that she can't keep her life together and is a little too snoopy for her own good at times, is a likable heroine. Nina obviously has problems, but I never guessed at what she and her husband were hiding. And the setting is fantastic, something different from the domestic thrillers I usually read.

It can’t be easy to write a Gothic novel set in the sunny coast of France and reflect the feeling of dread. The blurbs describe The Safe Place as atmospheric, and it certainly is. I enjoyed reading about Querencia, the country mansion where Emily arrives as a housekeeper/personal assistant after giving up on her failed acting career. The action took a while to really get started, the first part focusing on Emily’s fall to rock-bottom and her budding relationship with Scott, the CEO of the company where she temps. Once she makes it to Querencia, she loves the place, even if something is not right. There is a creepy girl with a strange condition that makes her allergic to the sun (echoes of the children in The Others come to mind). Scott’s wife is also certainly not all with us, even if Emily gets along with her. Then… things happen and the book just lost me. I wasn’t that keen on Emily to begin with (whiny, needy, unreliable and self-deluded) but I was willing to root for her when things went south. The problem is that her reactions were unfeasible. Same goes for Scott and his wife. I understand how feelings can change in real life, but in this case it feels rushed and just absurd. The author alludes to a big secret in the past of one of the characters, but it’s never explored. I was also disappointed with the ending, so there really wasn’t much that stood out, other than the wonderful descriptions of the French countryside. That was not enough for me.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, NetGalley/ St. Martin's Press!

3.5 stars rounded up. This book was kind of slow for me mostly because it was pretty predictable and a little parts unbelievable. I still read it anyways because of course I have to know what all happens! Emily was way too naive, Scott was weird and slimy, and Nina was just bat you know what crazy. I felt so bad for Aurelia (Scott and Nina’s daughter), as a mother, I felt her pain all the way to my core. I felt Nina’s too, just not... in her way. I don’t want to give anything away. It’s not a bad book...I just wanted something more, some surprise twist that wasn’t seen coming a mile away. I can see this being a quick and entertaining read to some thriller readers but not likely for advanced thriller seekers.

This book was a little different than what I usually enjoy and choose to read. Reminded me a lot of the Lifetime movies I used to enjoy watching. It’s full of drama with a dark undercurrent that sweeps you along for a mysterious ride. I actually enjoyed it and found it well written and compelling. A good escape from real life.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC which I received in exchange for my honest review. The Safe Place is a dazzling debut novel from author Anna Downes. Like many current thrillers, the novel features dual narration. Emily, is a twenty-something aspiring actress who takes temp positions to make ends meet. Scott Denny is a highly successful businessman who seems to have the world on a string. He is handsome, rich and the much celebrated CEO of a wildly successful company. When Emily finds herself fired from the company Scott owns and released by her acting agent, she is facing eviction and at the end of her rope.Will Emily be forced to go to her adoptive parents with her hat in her hand yet again? It seems that way until Scott steps in with an offer she just can't refuse.

Scott tells Emily that his wife Nina is overwhelmed at their French seaside property Querencia and could desperately use some assistance in renovating the property and caring for their young daughter Aurelia. He asks Emily to move there in order to be Nina's assistant, nanny and all around Girl Friday. The money and fringe benefits Scott offers Emily in exchange for her services make Emily's acceptance a foregone conclusion.
The intersection of these two individuals initially seems random, but it soon becomes apparent that Scott has orchestrated some of Emily's recent financial setbacks because he has determined that the sweet and trusting Emily is just what his wife needs.

Once the story moves to France, the book really takes off and the author does an incredible job of transporting the reader to the French coast. It is easy to see why Emily quickly becomes enamored of the stunning property and the beautiful yet mysterious Nina. Emily helps Nina with the seemingly endless demands of caring for her six year old daughter Aurelia. Emily is told that Aurelia has a multitude of medical conditions including a severe sun allergy which explains the seclusion in which mother and daughter live.

Soon after Emily arrives it becomes clear that nothing at Querencia is what it seems. What unravels beyond the facade of the chateau is sinister and the tension becomes nearly unbearable as the book reaches its conclusion. As it turns out Emily is exactly the woman that Scott, Nina and Aurelia need. The ending left me breathless! While the author did include an epilogue, I feel that there were some questions left unanswered and I wasn't quite ready to part company with the characters.

This is an absolutely compelling debut novel which I highly recommend! I am eagerly looking forward to the author's next book!

Emily’s life is a hot mess. She lost her job, agent, and her apartment in just one day. Going no where fast, and no where to turn, Emily was out of options. Swooping in, quite literally, is her former CEO of her old job, with an offer too good to be true. Scott, the CEO, and his gorgeous wife, Nina, apparently needs an au pair, and a housekeeper stat! In a gorgeous estate in France, no-less. What could wrong? 😉

Thank you to @netgalley for an advanced copy of this fast-paced thriller. It was a little predictable but I really enjoyed it. I found myself really wanting to shake Emily a few times to wake her up. Come on, Emily! There’s always a catch and this one was pretty gapping. Definitely a great beach or poolside read.