"The Nesting" was a thoroughly enjoyable read. The author has done a great job of creating a novel with a strong gothic feel to it. While I had some familiarity with Norse mythology and folk tales, I was unfamiliar with Norwegian folk tales prior to reading this book, but the use of the Nokk/Nokken or water sprite/spirit was a good choice, enhancing the gothic aspect of the story. I also liked the story of Grete and the Elk, which the author may have invented, but certainly fits the spirit of a folk tale.

The book focuses on an ambitious architectural project in Norway and the mysterious complications faced by the builders and the architect's family. Tom and Aurelia Faraday wanted to build their dream home in Norway, which is where Aurelia's family had its origins and where she had idyllic childhood memories of visits with her grandparents. Tom hoped that this home, which would be as environmentally friendly as possible, would help put his architectural firm on the map. However, in order to build their dream home overlooking a fjord, it was necessary to cut down trees and divert a river. Mother Nature did not appreciate these changes and the river fought back, finding a new course that ended up undermining the foundation of the house, which was destroyed in a storm. In addition to the loss of the house, Aurelia commits suicide (or does she?). Aurelia's death occurs in the prologue, so this is not a spoiler.

Into the picture comes Lexi, who finds herself at loose ends after her latest suicide attempt is followed by the loss of her job and then by her long-term boyfriend ending their relationship. With little money and no place to go, she is riding a train when she overhears a young woman named Sophie talking about a nanny position in Norway. Lexi is intrigued because she is fascinated by Norway and is writing a novel set in Norway. When the opportunity arises, she surreptitiously obtains the information about the job and applies for the job using Sophie's name and resume. She is invited for an interview in London, makes a great impression with the Faradays' little girls, Gaia and Coco, and soon finds herself on the way to Norway to serve as the girls' nanny as the new house is built, this time on the side of a cliff overlooking the fjord. Not only is Lexi/Sophie in over her head, as she does not have some of the skills and training possessed by the real Sophie, but Tom, the housekeeper Maren (who is not very good at keeping house), and Tom's business partner Clive and his wife Derry, who spend a lot of time at the house or in the area, are all a bit strange in their own ways. Lexi/Sophie, who is predisposed to hallucinations, begins seeing and hearing strange things in Granhus, the old house where the family is living while the new build is taking place, and she begins to wonder whether Aurelia's death was really a suicide.

The book has interesting and compelling characters, good plot advancement, the strong mystical and gothic element, and plenty of surprises. Among the things I liked about the book is that the author does a good job of portraying the internal turmoil faced by Tom in trying to build the dream home and cope with the loss of his wife. Tom is an ardent environmentalist and wants the new home to be as environmentally friendly as possible, which leads to him making decisions that result in the build being more complex and costly, but yet his actions, especially diverting the river, have sizable, and at times catastrophic, impacts on the local environment. I would definitely recommend this book.

I received a copy of the e-book via NetGalley in exchange for a review.

Norway...A land of forests, fjords, folklore (sinister and eerie) and Secrets.The perfect setting for The Nesting by C. J. Cooke. This gothic tale is full of suspense, twists, turns and Secrets. The story hooked me from the beginning with Lexi with all her Secrets taking on a new identity to work as a Nanny in Norway to two adorable little girls. When she arrives she hears a strange noise from the cellar of the house. She finds muddy animal prints near her bed one night. What is in the house? What happened to the girls' mother? What is in the woods surrounding the house. Everyone and everything has a Secret, even Mother Earth. Are the things that happen just accidents or is there a force behind them? The story had me at the edge of my seat the whole time with ghosts, strange woodland and water creatures, "accidents" and all the Secrets. If you like psychological thrillers this is a must read, The Nesting by C. J. Cooke.

Thank you NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for the eARC.
Lexi, a young woman with mental health issues due to a miserable childhood, ends up homeless and jobless.
By chance she gets the opportunity to apply for a job as a nanny in Norway. She has to assume the stolen identity of another woman, though...
She gets the job and on arriving at the house immediately falls in love with the two little girls: Gaia and baby Coco.
Their father is building an eco-friendly home within a cliff and overlooking a fjord.
I don't want to give anything away anymore, but let me tell you, I absolutely loved this book. The beautiful, haunting setting, the great writing, the gothic atmosphere and the Norse mythical tales are all spellbinding.
I liked and empathized with Lexi, loved the girls and held my breath practically throughout the book.
Whether the ghost or sprite is real or the hallucinations and nightmares are due the to mental illness I won't speculate on - it just works.
Maybe Mother Nature does punish us for upsetting the natural order of things, it wouldn't surprise me!
5+ Stars, highly recommended!

I really enjoyed the beginning of the story. Started off in the life of Lexi, she had a streak of very hard times. The author gives great descriptives and it is beautifully written, hence my 3 star rating.

The rest just fell short for me. Its been done before and I started to get bored. It wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t something I would highly recommend. I would read another boon by this author, this one just didn’t do it for me.

Parts of this novel read like a fairy tale (and there were fairy tales within the fairy tale), with beautiful, evocative language. And everyone once in a while the main character Sophie (Lexi) slipped into vernacular, which made me smile because it was so unexpected.

The plot revolves around the wishes of Aurelia, who wanted a summer house in Norway because of the connection to her parents, who lived there. Her husband Tom, is determined to follow through with this wish, after the first house is destroyed and after Aurelia is presumed to have committed suicide. The trials and tribulations that the people in the household (Sophie as the nanny, two little girls, Tom, and Tom's partner and his wife), go through is gut wrenching and hard to read about.

I don't generally like "supernatural" explanations for events. I think there was a way to tie Aurelia's so called suicide into human caused event, with the fairy tale of the nokk as the coverup. There was a lot of repetition, and it seemed to take a while to get to the real story behind Aurelia's "suicide", but despite these misgivings, I still found the story different, interesting, and beautifully written.

A wonderful dark nordic tale, filled with twists and turns.
Creepy forest, creepy river, creepy history, creepy location, creepy dark things lurking, muddy footprints, grabby things, lies, bad omens, dark tales and several mysteries. Yes, it was creepy, dark, and twisted. The setting was amazing, perfect for the tale, Norway’s deep forested Fjords. The children were read Nordic tales, which only added to the creepy level and made me question if it was supernatural or not. The scenery was so intriguing I looked up several places the author wrote about I had to see more of them.
This was my first read from this author. I really liked it, loved the pacing the two time lines and the ending was a shocker. I look forward to reading more from her in the future.
I was gifted a copy of this book for an honest review

A rambling story, with many interesting twists and then there are the spots that just don’t follow through. There is a supernatural note, but mostly a twisted pattern of darkness and abuse that doesn’t always make sense, other than with regard to the main character of Lexi. Not a bad read, but there should be a rewrite with regard to things that happen in the beginning and how the book ends.

This was an extremely difficult book to get into. For approximately the first third of it, every time I put it down it was a struggle to pick it back up. But, I kept thinking it was going to get better and so kept reading. Thankfully, it did get a little better; but not much.

To be fair, there were things about the book I enjoyed. Setting the story in Norway was different and the countryside really came alive. I liked the inclusion of environmentalism surrounding the building of the homes. And the country’s legends added a nice spooky vibe to the story.

However, there was so much more that I felt did not work. To begin with, I was completely turned off by Lexi, the main character. She was the reason I was so appalled at the beginning of the book. To begin with, I was not expecting to read about someone attempting suicide and with such agonizing results; secondly, I was horrified by the actions she took to get a job; and, finally, I was shocked the family would hire her!

After the story moved to Norway, the book did get marginally better. Lexi/Sophie became more likable, but the story itself seemed a bit scattered. It wandered off in different directions as it moved between the past and present, never really becoming a satisfying, cohesive story.

My copy of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to the the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review it.

Lexi had grown up in foster care with a mom who hated her. After a suicide attempt, she lost her job and was dumped by her boyfriend. Helpless and homeless, she spent hours riding commuter rail trains where she overheard a conversation about a nanny job in Norway. Lexi didn’t know anything about being a nanny, but knew she needed this job. She took over the resume and persona of Sophie Hallerton, the commuter who’d been thinking about applying for the job, and sent off her application.

After getting the job Lexi enjoyed her life in Norway with Coco and Gaia, her two young charges. However, Norway had its own secrets. What was the terrifying creature that regularly appeared in the house and grounds? What really happened to Coco and Gaia’s mother? Why did it seem as if the very earth wanted them all gone?

I enjoyed this book, and felt great sympathy for Lexi. HOWEVER I have BIG questions about the ending. For those who are reading my review, if you don’t want to spoil the ending for yourself, please don’t read below the SPOILER ALERT! banner. These questions, and resulting uncertainties, made me drop two stars from my rating.

However, since the storyline is very imaginative, I will recommend it for Adults. I hope the situation I mentioned below gets fixed before the book is published.

I received a digital advance reading copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

******SPOILER ALERT! ******* SPOILER ALERT! **********SPOILER ALERT! ********

******SPOILER ALERT! ******* SPOILER ALERT! **********SPOILER ALERT! ********

I am VERY confused over how Aurelia died. In Derry’s version she wades into the fjord, submerges and drowns. However this doesn’t jive with what was written earlier in the book because Aurelia imagined herself wading into the fjord with reindeer and then returned home. She didn’t die during that particular visit to the fjord.

In the Prologue Cooke wrote that Aurelia died when she accidentally fell off a cliff while being chased. Did the author forget what she’d written and decide to make up a completely different death for Aurelia? Did she fall off the cliff OR did she drown while having hallucinations with the reindeer? If she drowned with the invisible reindeer then the Prologue needs to be rewritten.

Also, why did Tom decide to let Lexi stay on after her accident? He didn’t feel bad about her attempted suicide when she told him why she’d impersonated Sophie. He could have insisted she return to London after she got out of the hospital. What changed? I hope the author or publisher have answers for me. Thanks.

I love books with nannies looking after children in gothic and mysterious settings and this book hit the spot.

In the beginning, it had the same vibe as “The Turn of the Key“ by Ruth Ware, however it became quite different as the story progressed.

Lexi, a woman who has just come out of a serious relationship, is depressed and suicidal. After the breakup she is homeless, and has nowhere to go.

By chance she gets an opportunity to take on a fake identity and travel to Norway. She has to look after two little girls, for a widower named Tom, who has recently lost his wife Aurelia. She is quite nervous but relieved as things weren’t going right for her, and this gives her an opportunity to turn her life around.

We go through the story both in the past with Aurelia when she was alive and then in the present, we get Lexi’s perspective.

Tom still hasn’t gotten over the death of his wife, and is busy building a high-concept eco-home in a remote area in Norway. Lexi has to stay on the building site with his daughters.

Strange events start to occur, and it seems like the place is haunted as everyone keeps seeing an eerie apparition of a woman. Other events point towards beings from Scandinavian folklore.

This is a compelling and atmospheric story with elements of horror and mystery. The characters are well drawn out and we actually feel for the ones going through depression and loss, as that seems to be a major theme.

The ending seemed a bit rushed after such a detailed beginning and middle. I felt like I needed more closure and perhaps a bit more of an explanation for all the mysteries.

I would recommend this book for people who like haunted house stories or mysteries, and are perhaps interested in folklore and legends.

Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an advance reader’s copy for an honest review.

I do like a good scary read every now and then. And “The Nesting” (thanks, NetGalley) sounded like a good candidate.

Our main character is Lexi, who has had a troubled life and is currently drifting … until she happens to sit behind a lady on the train one day and eavesdrops on her conversation. Long story short, Lexi assumes the other lady’s identity, and has soon become the nanny to two young girls who live with their widowed dad in the woods and fjords of Norway, where he is building a house.

Actually he has built a house nearby previously, but it was destroyed one night. By a storm? Mysterious forces of nature? We’re not exactly sure. We also aren’t exactly sure how his wife died a few months ago. “It seemed that here, in this house, anything was possible.” And usually not in a good way.

The new house Tom is building is intended to be built into a cliff, a “nest” of sorts. Nests are a frequent theme here, from “‘the Eagle’s Nest,’ Hitler’s gaffe in the Bavarian Alps, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” etc.

The book weaves in some interesting Norse folklore, and I loved the atmospheric aspects of it. I could truly feel I was in the Norwegian woods, walking along a fjord or running into an elk — or a creepy “sad woman” whose identity is never explained.

There are a few issues in the book — some things brought up without resolution (spoiler: what was the purpose of the character Maren? Did nothing ever come of the body covered in concrete during the building?). Not sure if that’s intentional or sloppy editing.

Overall, a good book to read when you’re craving a little spooking.

A beautifully compelling tale of Gothic suspense and Nordic folklore from (new-to-me) author, C.J. Cooke, who has just earned her way onto my 'must-read' list.

Admittedly, after reading the first few chapters, I was struck by how much The Nesting reminded me of Ruth Ware's The Turn of the Key. It quickly evolved into something very different, however, making use of beautifully vivid prose and positively gorgeous descriptions of Norway...it's fjords, natural beauty, wildlife, culture, and even the aurora borealis. I felt as though I were there, seeing this stunning country with my own eyes.

The characters were beautifully executed, all sympathetic to some degree. I particularly loved Dora. 🦅 Told from from two perspectives, those of Lexi (aka Sophie), in the present, and Aurelia, about a year in the past, the story evolves into a quite engrossing read.

This isn't typically my genre of choice, but I'm so glad I gave this novel a chance.

Is your interest piqued? If so, you can pick up your own copy of this lovely noir September 29, 2020.

**My sincere thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for my review copy.

Thank. you for the advanced e-ARC win exchange for my honest review. I will post my review on Goodreads and Amazon.

To be honest, I didn't have high expectations going into this read. I figured it would be just another run of the mill who-dunnit thriller. I ended up being half right in that The Nesting definitely did fall victim to generic tropes of the mystery/thriller genre, but there was also a supernatural folklore element at play. But, unfortunately, those two elements didn't mix well and just made for a plot that felt overloaded. I wish the author had solely embraced the Nordic folklore element which could have created a really unique thriller.

Another thing that bothered me was the narration which was a bit all over the place-Lexi's chapters were in first person, Aurelia's in third person limited, and then there were chapters in third person omniscient featuring secondary characters, where the perspective shifted too quickly between characters.

The ending was a big letdown--lots of unanswered questions and an overall unsatisfying conclusion.

The atmospheric setting and the fact that I was invested enough to keep reading to find out what happened to Aurelia is what makes this a 2 star read.

Oo y’all this was such a good one!! A definite must read. Couldn’t put this one down, the suspense will get ya!

I enjoy a good thriller. I sift through countless ones to find something that stands out. It’s such a popular genre these days, specifically these women thriller, authored by and driven by females, and this one actually actively went for doing something different, so kudos. That different something being a steady infusion of supernatural elements into the plot. In fact, so much so that it became a new beast altogether. At first easily classified as a supernatural thriller, this story of a young woman who out of sheer financial (and psychological, really, the two tend to be inextricable when dire) desperation cons her way into a nanny position for two young children whose mother recently tragically died under mysterious circumstances. The position is in Norway, quite remote, so the story plays out against a visually stunning backdrop of fjords and desolation. The kids are adorable, their father somewhat less so since he’s completely obsessed with building the perfect abode his late wife and he had dreamed of, one that’ll seamlessly blend with the nature around it. Mind you, this is his second go at it, the first one had him subvert the local river and it backfired quite spectacularly. So the pressure is on now, the funds are low and the local workers are somewhat reluctant to mess with nature, respecting the law of the land. There are other people around too, the friend/business associate and his obsessively fitness minded wife. The woman who takes care of the place, not much of a cleaner and has her secrets. The woman who isn’t altogether there, potentially a ghost, seen only by the older kid and the nanny. And spooky noises and unexplained events and all that. It’s positively gothic in some ways, a Scandinavian noir version of Taming of the Shrew or something, but…it also does its best to comply with the thriller settings, providing such things as dual split (albeit very unevenly, so that it is mostly the nanny’s story and flows nicer for it) narrative, suspense, clues, mysterious diary, etc. The thing is, though, in retrospect especially, this isn’t really a thriller after all, not the traditional one, not that sort that floods the bookshelves out there so steadily, this is more along the lines of supernatural tinged suspense drama with a strong environmental message and a nice moody Scandinavian thing going for it right down to the local mythology. Which is to say those looking for a stereotypical thriller might be disappointed. Otherwise, it’s quite good though. I really enjoyed reading it, the setting and the myths being the best thing about it for me. Likeable and/or interesting characters too, even the kids, amazingly enough. The only thing was that the ending was tied up all too conveniently with all too cute of a bow, which seemed kind of incongruous with the story itself. But then again, there’s something to be said for some brightness, especially after the long and bleak Norwegian winters. So yes, I liked this one. It was different in just the right way for me. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.

Originally I wasn’t going to write a review for The Nesting because I was so frustrated by the end of the book, but I realized that wasn’t fair to future possible readers. I will, however, keep it short. On the positive side, I read The Nesting in two long sessions so I clearly found it engaging. The story was atmospheric, and even as I saw the pages winding down, I held out hope that the writer would bring it all together by the ending. She did not. As I read the last sentence, I was genuinely angry for wasting two days. The story is filled with contradictions, i.e. the mode of death of a character in the prologue is recounted in a completely different way by a bystander near the end. Was this supposed to be a case of the “unreliable narrator”? If so, that wasn’t clear. There were also many loose ends and unanswered questions (e.g. the scary basement, the source of funding for the build, etc.), and a main character who served no purpose whatsoever (Maren). I think this was a potentially good novel in need of a much stronger editor. I just can’t recommend it.

This story takes place in an atmospheric setting in Norway where there is cursed land, folklore, mysterious death, and obsession.

This is an excellent gothic thriller where strange footprints enter the room and mysterious books suddenly appear.

There is a new nanny who is not who she says she is, and the two children she looks after have been left behind by a suicidal mother. Their father is obsessed with building a new house and the housekeeper, with obsessions and secrets of her own, is suspicious of the new nanny. There is something in the water, drawing people towards it.

Lexi, a depressed and suicidal woman, takes on Sophie’s identity and becomes the Nanny for two young girls and their recently widowed father in Norway. The plot goes into their background, their current lives, Norse folktales, the death of their Mother along with the father (Tom), his partner and his wife and the housekeeper. The family is in Norway to build a vacation house. Both men are involved professionally in architecture and construction. The first house Tom built there was destroyed in a flood when the river he’d relocated returned to its original banks. It was days later that his wife died in the fjord and weeks later before her body was found. The house they are now building is different and located on the cliffs rather than the river. As any reader can see, the story is very dark and atmospheric. I won’t go further into the plot because of spoilers but will say it was very well done. Thanks to Net Galley and Berkley for an ARC for an honest review.

4.5 stars rounded up. I loved the characters, loved the setting, loved the plot. The ending could have been a bit more solid but overall this was a great book to read. The author describes the surroundings vividly. You feel that you are in Norway looking at the sparkling fjords, you feel the SAD that some of the characters may or may not be feeling. Lexi/Sophie is a great protagonist that is very sympathetic and likable, Gaia and Coco are adorable as the little girls that need a nanny very badly, and the other characters like Maren and Tom and Clive and Derry are quite unreadable. The little girls sweet mother Aurelia committed suicide and there are strange circumstances surrounding her death. Great Gothic ghost story. I highly recommend to anyone who likes suspenseful stories with descriptive writing.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for a chance to read and give an honest review.