This psychological contemporary novel does a great job of sliding into Nordic noir. I enjoyed the superstitious, Norwegian mythological elements very much and felt they really enhanced the off-kilter feeling of the principal characters. So many ideas—environmental concerns, suicide, postpartum depression, myth, architecture, writing, Montessori schooling, and mental illness—blend together seamlessly in #thenesting by C J Cooke. I wish to thank #netgalley and the publisher for this ebook to read ahead of publication in exchange for an honest review.

This book is absolutely perfect to me. I could not put it down!! The entire story played out so well. I loved the use of Norwegian legends and folktales. My only selfish complaint is I wish it was longer but I totally could have stayed in this world for longer throughout the climactic scenes and afterward. The premise of this initially reminded me of Turn of the Key, but then obviously goes a completely different direction. There are so many thrillers these days that have a lot of the same tropes and reveals and The Nesting was fully unique. There was a great mix of real life horror and speculative horror. The overarching themes of nature was SO GOOD. Cannot wait to read this book again.

Wow! First of all thank you so much to C J Cooke, Berkley Publishing Group, and Netgalley for this haunting thriller that comes out on September 29. It was full of scenic settings, Nordic fairytales, and a heart-pounding mystery.

This book is about Lexi, a woman who is out of options and recently tried to kill herself. While coming to terms with where her life is, she overhears about a job opportunity while on a train. She decides it would be the perfect job- being a nanny in Norway to two beautiful girls. The only catch is she has to pretend to be the person she overheard talking- a woman named Sophie. Somehow she makes it work, but when she gets to Norway, Lexi realizes that the family is deeply grieving and dealing with much more than she originally thought. The ancient woods are not all that they seem and Lexi has to protect the family from darkness.

Thoughts: I literally got chills while reading this book. There were so many small, haunting details that really got me. The book was beautifully written and had many ties to nature and the folklore of Norway. The atmosphere was chilling and I felt all the characters were unreliable even until the end. You never really knew what was going to happen and what was true or what wasn’t. I loved how fast-paced this book was and it kept me wanting more the entire time. I did feel that there were a few things that were not explained, but I loved the book and give it 4.5 chilling stars!

Thank you so much for this ARC!

I LOVED THIS! I typically read domestic thrillers and suspense, but this book was definitely a bit different. It had the domestic thriller vibe but also elegantly incorporated a bit of horror! The horror aspect was tastefully done and at times I really had goosebumps.

Any thriller that takes place in the Scandinavian region is an A+ in my book. LOVE the backdrop of the story.

I will be awaiting more novels!

She lied about who she was, but she never realized that her desperation for a job would never match the desperation she would feel to survive. THE NESTING by C.J. Cooke is a razor-sharp, garrote tight thriller that will leave readers chilled.

Terrifying, heavy with atmosphere and an undefinable darkness, this tale takes readers to a secluded mountain in Norway where what one sees on the surface may not be the true reality. A fabulously gritty read that will leave the answers just out of reach until the very end!

C.J. Cooke has mastered the art of using her words in a diabolically devilish way!

I received a complimentary ARC edition from Berkley Publishing. This is my honest and voluntary review.

When a homeless and suicidal young woman overhears a conversation about a position for a nanny who will go to Norway, it seems a perfect solution for her penniless situation. The woman for whom the job is intended doesn't want it anyway, to assuming her identity seems victimless. So Lexie becomes Sophie and heads off to Norway where her employer is building an experimental home clinging to the side of a cliff. What she doesn't count on is her attachment to the two little girls who are her charges and falling under the spell of the Norwegian fjord country--and the mysterious lake monster who threatens both Lexie and the children. The plot moves back and forth between the present and recent past, and is filled with both menace and beauty. None of the characters are simple and each of them has secrets

I usually don’t read supernatural and gothic thrillers, but this was a page turning thrill ride. Lexi poses as someone else to get a nanny job for a widower in Norway. His wife committed suicide...or did she? The house Tom is building in Norway seems to potentially be stirring the supernatural and disturbing nature and nature is fighting back.

A great tale with a good mix of mystery and supernatural. I enjoyed this and look forward to more from this author.

Thanks to the publisher for a review copy via NetGalley.

A great gothic thriller that will not disappoint fans of the genre. A great book for people to read who are looking to expand their genre selection. Purchasing for library.

Lexi Ellis can't seem to do anything right ... even attempting suicide. When released from the hospital she learns her life is ablaze. Her long-time boyfriend "throws her out" with an ultimatum to leave in the morning. She realizes she has no home, no job. ... and her best friend tells her that she's moving in with her ex. Feeling hopeless and homeless , she decides to ride the train all day, using her ex's rail pass. She overhears two young woman discussing the reasons why one won't pursue an excellent nanny position in Norway. They ask Lexi if she wouldn't' mind watching their things while they grab lunch. Lexi immediately grabs her phone and snaps away ... obtaining not only a copy of the nanny advertisement , but also Sophie Hallerton's excellent resume, chronicling her marvelous experience and recommendations. Lexy immediately applies for the position, posing as Sophie and gets an interview and the job. She even has aspirations of writing a novel in her "spare time" ... which she soon learns is a pipe dream. She immediately is immersed into the task of not only taking care of two little ones ... Gaia, six-years old, and Coco, only nine months old ... on a 24/7 basis , but also has to provide for their education using the Montessori method. All while contending with husband Tom and the somewhat bizarre housekeeper, Marin. Lexi appears to be in deep shite... Sophie apparently also trained as a nurse and loves vegan cooking! The family is reeling and is devastated by the recent loss of their mother, Aurelia ( The daughter's are hidden from the details ... "Mommy's in Heaven": ... however, it is assumed that she successfully committed suicide by drowning in the fjord.) Husband Tom, an apparently famous architect is entrenched and determined to complete the building of Aurelia's dream house. However, he is constantly being thwarted by the mysterious disappearance of tools and building supplies from the construction site. Increasing difficulties arise when Tom starts to interfere with the natural environment ... starting with cutting down ancient trees to obtain a better view of the fjord ... and then foolishly diverting the course of river that has been present for millennia .... one that has a multitude of animal species drinking from. The brooding atmosphere pervades the narrative .... while attempting to build the eco-friendly house on top of the magnificent cliffs overlooking the deep fjord below . The site seems to adversely effect all ....Tom is moody and distracted .... "Sophie" starts to hear and see things.... noises from the basement, that she has been told is off-limits and to avoid. She is told by Gaia that the "Sad Lady" lives in the basement... who has visited her frequently .... she describes a woman with dripping wet clothes ... and "she doesn't have eyes, just holes". Their temporary home, called Granhus, was surrounded by thick woods inhabited by wolves, bears , and probably witches. Sophie often awakens in the morning to find muddy hoofprints on the floor of her bedroom ... stopping on the side of her bed and without any prints leaving the room. One evening, awakening from a sound that Sophie perceived as coming from Cocco ... she creeps into the kitchen to make a bottle, only to perceive an unexpected specter out the kitchen window. Hovering outside the window was a long wet haired woman with severely swollen feet .. who remained even after Sophie closed and re-opened her eyes ... she was more creature than human... her skin was purple and mottled, and her hair was covered in slimy weeds ... and black beetles wriggled in her hair ... her teeth were black and fanged. But, worst of all were her eyes... they were bulbous like a frog's
and so dark they looked like holes. Throughout the creepy narrative, Cooke inserts tales of Norwegian folklore that could be a relevant explanation of the eerie happenings. One of the most disturbing is the presence of nokken... water trolls, who are both malicious and mischievous beings from another world who inhabit this world in the shadows .... and act on the behalf of Mother Nature. ... and have been known to punish humans who have overstepped the mark. Was Aurelia's death a punishment for building the house?
C.J. Cooke proves to be a masterful storyteller and weaves a twisted narrative with an escalating and pervasive sense of dread and foreboding. In the background, while reading, should be The Doors album, "Strange Days" ... to complement this page-turning gem. Thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for providing an electronic Uncorrected Proof in exchange for an honest review. ( at readersremains.com )

I started reading The Nesting around 10 pm and could do nothing else until I finished it. This was a very suspenseful, thrilling horror story. Lexi is a hot mess. She is released from the hospital after trying to cut her wrists, her boyfriend breaks up with her and is now dating her best friend. Shell-shocked, Lexi realizes she has no job and no place to live. What she does have is her ex's rail pass so she rides the train while trying to plan her next move. Lexi has almost decided to attempt suicide again when she overhears two young women discussing a nanny advertisement. As luck would have it, the women ask Lexi to watch their things while they get some lunch. Sophie jumps at the chance to copy the ad information and the other woman's resume and quickly applies for the job. She finally gets off the train back in Newcastle and ends up at a women's shelter. Surprisingly, she hears back from the family, who would like her to interview. Thanks to kind staff at the shelter, Lexi shows up looking professional and talks a good game. Lexi/Sophie learns that the family consists of two adorable young girls, their father and their housemanager. The family is reeling from the loss of Aurelia, mother, wife and friend. She is believed to have committed suicide in Norway at the site of their new eco-friendly house that Tom, the husband was building. Now they are moving back to finish the build and thier current nanny is unable to attend. Somehow Lexi is able to give the right answers and gets the job. Now all she has to do is remember that she is posing as Sophie, who is also a nurse and a vegan and has her act together. She soon gets into the routine of caring for Gaia, six, and the baby, Coco. Then strange things start to happen. A dripping wet woman with no eyes appears and disappears around the house. Lexi/Sophie finds elk hoofprints inside the house and half of the building crew quits because they fear the building site is haunted. Lexi learns more about the area, the drastic changes Tom made while building the house and the true details behind Aurelia's death. As her fear grows, Lexi must decide whether to come clean about her real identity and risk losing the girls she's come to love.

Cooke has written a scary, suspenseful tale about secrets, lies and the dangers of messing around with Mother Nature. The Nesting is steeped in Norwegian folklore and the characters and plot are so well-developed that you'll find yourself looking over your shoulder for a good long while This was an exciting, fast read that would be good for discussion. Lexi and Aurelia both suffer with mental illness which Cooke presents frankly and honestly. I highly recommend The Nesting for anyone who enjoys folklore and a creepy story. I appreciate the chance to read the ARC.

The Nesting is definitely not a typical thriller, which is a good thing as far as I'm concerned.

Lexi has hit rock bottom - following a suicide attempt she is struggling mentally and emotionally, her boyfriend dumps her and kicks her out of their home, she's broke, and she has no one to turn to. When an opportunity to move to Norway to nanny for two young girls who recently lost their mother, it seems like the change Lexi needs to pull her life back together. Of course the job does not turn out as perfectly as Lexi imagined. To start with, Granhus, the remote ancient red house the family lives in has a 'bad feeling'; Gaia, the older girl, suffers from night terrors, the girls' father Tom is moody and distracted by the mysterious accidents that are plaguing the construction of his new home in the Norwegian countryside, there's a creepy housekeeper, and Lexi is seeing and hearing strange things in the house.

The story is told in multiple viewpoints and time periods (then and now), though most of the story is 'now' from Lexi's point of view, with 'then' being mostly from Aurelia (the mother's) point of view from moving into Granhus shortly following the birth of Coco, up until her death by drowning in the fjord - an apparent suicide attempt.

I loved how Norwegian folklore was woven throughout the story, which had a nice gothic feel to it. Definitely recommend to anyone who likes thrillers but is looking for something a bit different, or anyone who enjoys gothic or haunted house stories.

I like a good thriller here and there so I figured I'd give The Nesting a shot. It was interesting in that it felt very typical in some ways, yet the folklore and environmental elements of the story gave it a different feel than many other books I've read. The book is good, definitely worth a read if you like thrillers, but I wouldn't call it a must-read.

When I started reading The Nesting, I was reminded of Ruth Ware's The Turn of the Key. If you haven't read that book, this isn't a spoiler, but if you have, the striking similarities between Lexi and Rowan do not continue throughout the story.
Lexi has hit rock bottom. After a failed suicide attempt, she lost her job, her boyfriend breaks up with her, she has very little money, and nowhere to go. While on the train, trying to come up with some kind of plan, fate intervenes. Two women start talking about a nanny job in Norway, and Lexi is determined to be the one to get hired. All she has to do is “borrow” Sophie Hallerton's identity and resume, create a new email address, and apply for the position. What could go wrong?
When the recently widowed Tom Faraday offers her the job, she thinks that this new start will solve all her problems. Tom is committed to finishing the house that was going to be his and his wife, Aurelia's dream house. Of course, the real Sophie has actual nanny experience, but Lexi figures how hard can it be to Goggle some advice.
Gaia is six, and Coco is nine months old, and they miss their mother terribly, especially Gaia. She speaks of her mother running away and the scary Sad Lady who visits her at night. What the children don't know is that Aurelia committed suicide and Tom is struggling to accept this sad truth. Sophie may not know much about being a nanny, but she is almost instantly smitten with these girls.
The house is in the middle of the woods with no playmates for the children and no one that Sophie can talk to or trust. Sophie is told the basement is off-limits, and yet she hears strange noises coming from there. Mysterious elk prints, vandalism at the job site, Nordic folklore and legends abound, and a diary left in Sophie's room suggests Tom may have killed his wife.
Told from multiple perspectives, we learn what happened in the time leading up to Aurelia's death. Did they cross a line when they started to build their home and interfere with nature? Are their spirits at work causing havoc and death, or are these characters stressed and hallucinating?
I was so engrossed in this creepy and eerie tale, trying to figure out what was going on. Some of the plotlines seemed not to be needed, such as Maren the housekeeper, and some other things were never fully explained, especially at the end. I think the author wanted some situations to be open to debate, or at least I hope so! Ultimately, The Nesting kept me thinking about what I read well beyond the final page. I am sure that there will be some lively book discussions after the September publication date.

This is definitely not my first choice on genre, but the cover and the small description really made me want to check this one out. I thought that the writing was extremely chilling-- I was creeped out by a lot of it. I love when a book really bleeds out scenery and gives such good visuals. I've found in a lot of Gothic novels that I've read, the scenery makes up for almost half of the book since you are supposed to feel how the author wants you to. I really enjoyed this one. I enjoyed the inspiration of Nordic folktales and elements of psychological suspense. I really enjoyed this novel a lot, and I want to thank NetGalley, the publisher, and CJ Cooke for sending me an e-book in exchange for a review!

WOW! I had never heard of this author or this novel and requested it on a whim. SO glad I did! It was gothic lite, dark and creepy and isolated and just perfect for the storyline. The characters were well fleshed out and the mystery kept me rapidly turning the pages. I cannot wait to read more from this author!

This book got a lot of great reviews and I was excited to get started on this book; however, I could not relate to any of the characters and found myself getting easily confused with all the different point of views. I don't think it's a bad book, I think it's just not for me.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Loved the atmosphere, the narrator, the setting! The diary entries and different points of view had me guessing right up until the end—but I was a little surprised by the way the story resolved itself so quickly and neatly. Otherwise, I thought this was a great example of a modern gothic thriller.

The writing in this book is so lovely and haunting, and I was mesmerized by the mystery. Ultimately, though, I found the story disappointing. The prologue is misleading and a total red herring, and I couldn't really figure out how it made sense at all in the context of the actual story. This might be just because I am more of a fan of more traditional murder mysteries. Fans of folklore and mythology might find it more to their liking. I was sad when it ended, because I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, all the way up to the point when we learn the truth of Aurelia's drowning. Then the ending changed my feeling about the book overall.

Review copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was a great, eerie read. It combines an almost supernatural element with a real life flesh and blood killer. Full of twists and turns in a dark forest setting in a secluded place.
This book had some great characters and a beautifully weaved setting which made for a detailed, suspenseful read ( one in which you can feel the atmosphere)

My only critique is that it was slightly long and some parts seemed drawn out but over all this was a must read.

It’s very clear how the author is a poet. Her prose is beautiful and the story comes alive in every chapter. Lexi is homeless after a suicide attempt. She just wants to die when she overhears a conversation and learns about a nanny position in Norway. That would mean a roof over her head so having no experience is no problem. She steals a name and resume and finds herself at Grauhaus, a decrepit house in an ancient Norwegian wood. There, Lexi cares for a girl and a toddler who just lost their mother to suicide. To say that the house and woods are creepy is an understatement. Some paragraphs were very scary. What’s worse, is that Lexi doesn’t know whether she’s seeing ghosts, or hallucinating. She’s been living with mental illness, and you can see that the author has a passion for mental health, since this is not used as a plot device as it often happens, but in a compassionate, organic way. Lexi may be a mess, but she’s so likable and strong, even if she doesn’t know it. Children are not my favorite characters, but these poppets are actually nice. The mysterious widower is a good mix of brooding and violent. But it’s nature that’s controlling it all. The ending seemed a little rushed, but it was still satisfying. A great read for a stormy night.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, NetGalley/Berkley Publishing Group!