I really wanted to love this one. The synopsis hooked me, and I had heard great things from others. Unfortunately, this one just wasn’t for me.

I took issue first off with the title of this book. And the tagline. The House Sitter, except they weren’t house sitters and there was two of them? So why in the singular?
The police in this book also bothered me with their incompetence and with the one ignoring all protocols completely. It was not believable to me at least.
I know I’m in the minority on my review as most people I’ve seen it give a much higher rating.
I don’t want to give any spoilers away. The saving grace - I didn’t find it predictable. There were definitely aspects to this book that I did enjoy. Overall it just wasn’t my cup of tea.
Quick and easy read - or in my case, listen.

Thank you again to NetGalley and Bookouture for this ARC audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you Net Galley for an audio ARC of The House Sitter by Ellery Kane. This was a fast paced mystery but it was easy to see, for me, what was going on.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture Audio for this Advanced Reader Copy, in exchange for my honest review.

Iris, an elderly widower living alone, finds Lydia at a Diner. Noticing Lydia is down on her luck, Iris invites Lydia and her boyfriend, Seth to be her caretakers. One night Iris makes a call to 911 convinced that someone is in the house. Whilst on the call the 911 responder can hear gunshots go off. When the police arrive Iris is missing but leaves a trail of blood behind.

I was very intrigued by the cover, title, and description of this book. However, it fell short for me. I had a very hard time getting into the story and caring enough to want to get invested. It definitely did not catch my attention. The men in the story were all misogynistic and I had a hard time getting over that. I was hoping for more mystery, The audio book was also difficult to listen to, it jumped back and forth and I didn't realize it was doing that until 1/4 of the way into the book.

I particularly enjoyed the narration. The narrator narrated the book beautifully, and I loved the depictions of the different characters. Such a wonderful book. Utterly unique, exquisitely crafted and quietly powerful. I loved it and want everyone to read this novel!

Iris is a 69 year old widow who lives alone. Shortly after Iris finds herself needing some help to care of her very big and ornate home, she meets Lydia. Lydia is a down on her luck young pregnant woman working at a
cafe. When Iris meets Lydia at the cafe she offers Lydia and her boyfriend Seth the opportunity of moving in and becoming the caretakers of her home.

Iris believes there is an intruder in her home she subsequently calls 911. Whilst on the call the 911 operator can hear gunshots go off. When the police arrived Iris is missing and their is copious amounts of
blood, so much so that they are convinced she must of been murdered.

Narration: The book is narrated by Kristin James. If I am being completely honest, I almost DNF this book because of the narrator. I struggled with the narration,
specifically the choice of character voices, especially the voice of Iris. I think the narrator thinks the voice of a 69 year old should sound as if they are in their dying
bed.

Story: I am glad I struggled through the narration because I actually enjoyed the story. It is evident that the author invested a great deal of time in developing a
well thought out plan and it was very well executed.
***Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture Audio for this Advance Audiobook

3.5 stars

I enjoyed The House Sitter, the narrator was pretty good. I liked the storyline, it definitely kept me interested to find out how it was going to end. Most of the characters were like able except for the brother, but every thriller has to have at least one character you can dislike!

Overall I enjoyed the book and would recommend to friends.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture Audio for this Advanced Reader Copy, in exchange for my honest review.

I was intrigued by the description of this book, along with the cover. It looked to be a potentially interesting psychological thriller. A wealthy elderly female has someone move into the home to help care for things and the person won't leave. After finishing the book, I don't think that the tag line on the cover is exactly an accurate description.

The story is of Iris, and elderly widow, who meets Lydia and invites her to come and help her around her home. Iris is under the impression that the man Lydia brings with her is her husband, Seth. But things presented to the reader are off.
Iris is concerned because she feels that he home is being broken into, and eventually invites the couple to move in.

But when Iris disappears, there is a lot to unravel. And things are not what they seem.

I will say that the writing was good. The story flowed and there were some twists that I did not figure out. Other things were a little easier to see from a far. Overall, this was a good story. I liked the rookie police officer and could see there being a sequel or a series involving her as a PI.

I loved the setting of San Francisco, because I am a Northern CA girl. The house represented on the cover, is not what I expect to see in Pacific Heights district of the city but that is not that important.

There were some possible triggers for people as themes in the book; Elder abuse/exploitation, psychological abuse.

I rated it a 3 stars but round that up to 3.5 rating.

Name of Book: The House Sitter
Author: Ellery Kane
Narrator: Kristen James
Publisher: Bookouture Audio
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Pub Date: June 14, 2022
My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ stars!

Iris Duncan’s seventh birthday is coming up. She lives alone in a beautiful home in the Pacific Heights area of San Francisco. She recently broke her arm and can no longer take care of the house or the lawn. She is having lunch at a nearby café and Lydia, a sweet twenty-four year old waitress is somewhat clumsy and the owner is giving her a hard time. Iris decides on the spot to hire both Lydia and Seth McKay to help with her house and lawn. They are currently living in a nearby motel. Iris does not have any children and immediately offers them a place to live and soon is treating them like her children.

Iris has been concern about items going missing and believes a burglar has been in her house. Unfortunately Iris has memory issues and in most cases she has put item away and doesn’t remember doing so. However, soon after Lydia and Seth have settled in Iris goes missing.
Authorities believe the House Sitters/Caretakers may be responsible.
Story is told ‘Before’ Iris goes missing and ‘After’ she is missing!
I was pulling for Lydia as Seth was hard to take as he was so nasty with a foul mouth!

I am a big psychological thriller fan and have four expectations:
1. Expect twists and turns!
2. Be suspicious of everyone!
3. There will be many secrets!
4. The most obvious person didn’t do it!
Hmm I wasn’t as sure about #4 ~ the most obvious sure seemed guilty.
Story kept me interested and very curious!!!
Loved the twist!!!!
My first author:, Ellery Kane. I am anxious to read another!

Want to thank NetGalley and Bookouture Audio for this audio eGalley. This file has been made available to me before publication in an early form for my honest opinion.
Publishing Release Date scheduled for June 14, 2022

Iris Duncan, almost 70yrs old lives all by herself and has a tough life as she has to manage everything alone. With old age and memory failure issues her life is getting even tougher. She meets Lydia in a café and realizes that she should allow Lydia to be her house sitter/ care taker.
Lydia moves into Iris’s house along with her partner Seth. Iris has a lot to deal with her, with a broken arm she has let her garden go unmaintained and she seeks Seth’s help in fixing this as she has received enough notices from the HOA.
After a few months of Lydia and Seth being part of Iris’s life, the dispatcher unit receives a call from a frantic sounding old woman saying that there’s a burglar in her house and soon the dispatcher hears a gunshot.
When the detectives arrive on scene, they cannot find Iris or Lydia and no one knows what might have happened in that pristine clean house.
As the detectives dig deeper they find clues from the past which might mean that someone has a lot to lose if all the truth gets revealed.

I thoroughly enjoyed this audiobook narrated by Kristin James, but the over-all narrative could have been even better – some details felt misplaced but it was manageable.
Overall this was a good 3-star read for me.

Thank you Netgalley, Bookouture Audio and Ellery Kane for this copy in exchange for a very honest review.

We open to a 911 call from an elderly lady. She's asking for help but all the dispatchers can do is stay on the line with her and listen on in horror, unable to help.

We then go back to meet Iris, presumably the elderly lady on the emergency call. Iris is young at heart and lonely after the loss of her husband Dean.

Iris makes her way into a cafe and meets a clumsy waitress named Lydia. Lydia keeps talking about her partner Seth, who sounds like a real loser. She also makes some victim noises about her boss for asking her to do her job. Lydia is chatty and and over-sharer. That's like catnip for lonely old ladies.

Iris leaves her a big tip and her phone number and the next thing you know, Lydia and Seth are at her house to do some work.

I followed along pretty well up to this point. Then we are dealing with cops and investigators at a crime scene and it's hard to follow because they're just not being clear. I understand it's on purpose but maybe needed some more editing to make it work.

Also, I recommend the book if you choose to read it. I had the audiobook and the narration was cartoonish with the shaky voice for Iris. It was too distracting.

As the police try to get to the bottom of what happened, things start to come out that make it seem as if this meeting was not by chance. Who would want to hurt Iris and why?

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to listen and review.

I really loved listening to this book, and it helped me a lot while I was doing some household chores. The audiobook narrator was great.

Iris is an old lady who is rich and lives at home in her big house alone. She can't take care of her home and garden any longer, so she jumps at the chance to invite Lydia and Seth to live with her and help her out with her chores and gardening. Iris is very helpful and nice to them both, giving them a lot of money in exchange for their help. Iris goes missing, but where could she be? And are Lydia and Seth really who they say they are?

This is a fantastic psychological/domestic thriller, which I recommend highly. I really enjoyed it so much that I listened to it all in one day. It kept me entertained magnificently.

Many thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you Netgalley for this audio edition of The House Sitter by Ellery Kane.

DNF. Made it about halfway, and then just could. not. anymore.

The narrator didn't help. The tone was SO overdone. It felt a bit like being told a semi scary story around the campfire by a ten year old hopped up on s'mores and an overinflated confidence in his own storytelling abilities.

But honestly the narration was probably on par with the story itself, because, same. So out there, so silly, were these characters all born from an egg like two days prior to everything that happened? After rolling my eyes for the 28th time, I figured it was time to give my optic nerve a break and call this one quits.

Nooo. I really hated the narration. I hate saying that, but it was terrible. And maybe I would have possibly liked the story better if I had read the e-book versus audio, but it just didn't do it for me.

Also, the story was all over the place for me and the story ended up pretty...meh. I like when characters grab me and I just felt like they were all pretty unlikable and flat.

70-year-old Iris needs help - she’s forgetful, has a broken arm, and is just generally not able to keep up with her large house since her husband died. Luckily, she runs in to just the people she wants looking after her.

In The House Sitters - actually, pause here. Who’s house sitting in this book? Aren’t they care takers? And then they are [spoiler]s?? The Caretakers would have been an excellent name for this book. Obviously, I’ve digressed.

Take two. In The House Sitters, Iris finds a down on their luck couple and invites them to stay with her to help around the house. The book starts at an event - a 911 call that includes two gunshots in the background - but then bounces between “before” and “after” to fill in the how and why.

I didn’t love this book. I found the characters mostly unlikable and irrational. It seemed like the men were mostly misogynistic, but the women at least had some variability. I felt like the details and personalities were overwrought and the story was pretty slow until the end.

I do love a good set of puzzles fitting together, and this book did that very well. I did enjoy the last 20% of the book quite a bit. The rest was fine.

Thank you to #NetGalley and the publisher for this audiobook ARC!

This audiobook was... meh. The plot had potential, but by the end, I just didn't like any of the characters and felt like many things were wrapped up quickly just to end the book. A lot of the twists and turns are very predictable and elicited eye rolls as I listened. I really wanted there to be something more to Iris's story... but I ended up disappointed. There were times when the narration got confusing, characters sounding too much alike so it was difficult to know which character was speaking. Perhaps reading the book would have been better for me? Either way, this one doesn't make me crave more from Kane. The ending feels like the likely start to a new series, but I won't be watching for it. This was my first experience with this author's work. No author is a great fit for everyone and this one's just not for me based if this book is representative of her other work.

Thanks to Bookouture Audio and NetGalley for the ALC in exchange for my honest review.

The House Sitter is not much of a psychological thriller (or a thriller at all).

Iris is an elderly woman who is looking for someone to help care for her after an injury. She "randomly" selects a waitress she has one conversation with to come care for her. She immediately moves the girl and her prositute (and then randomly gambling) addicted friend into her home. Iris winds up missing and the police are left to solve the mystery.

I had a hard time getting into the book at all. At first, it was because the person reading the audiobook sounds like she is reading to elementary kids with some strange filtering to her voice. Second, I felt the first 75% of the book was predictable- shoot, the title gives that storyline away off the bat. Then, out of no where there are 90 twists, turns, and ties that all seem rushed and forced- as if someone said, "hey this ending is predictable we should spice it up," and they crammed all of that into the last 25% of the book. Also, the first 8% of the book says she is proud of her "precedia (sp? I listened to the audiobook)- and then never mentioned it again- like why did we need to repeat this random word and then do nothing with it. The ending is so disconnected from the start that I felt I need to go back and listen to the start to see how I could conenct the two together.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for the digital review copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions expressed here are mine.

★★ 2 stars

Oopsies, I didn't love this as much as I had hoped.

The fragmented narrative made for an almost compelling mystery however I was more interested with Iris' secret life than the actual mystery at hand.

The narration was okay. This is my first Kristin James audio. I must say, her alternating voicing for the characters was good. It's just sometimes her narration feels like she's reading a primetime news report.

Thanks so much to Netgalley and Bookouture Audio for the copy!

Narrated by: Kristin James

Publication date: 14 June 2022

I did not like this book at all! They were not any likable characters, The story was ridiculous and uninteresting, and the narrator on the audiobook was terrible. I didn’t find this to have any suspense or thriller aspect-just a bad book.

You know how a good narration on an Audiobook can really lift the novel? Unfortunately on this this occasion I struggled with the narration, specifically the choice of character voices, to the extent it got in my way of enjoying the story.

The story features Iris, a kindly, rich widow, struggling to cope, rattling around her big house alone. She befriends Lydia, a young waitress in a diner, and asks her and by association her boyfriend Seth to come and work for her.

Gunshots in the night, bloodstains, and Iris is missing, presumed murdered.

There were plenty of twists, but I don't feel able to comment on the quality of the novel in detail, and I apologise to the author for this.

I really wish I had read this one instead of listened. I found the voices rather theatrical from the start. Iris's quivering old lady voice felt hammy, but I could live with that. It was Seth's voice that really irritated me. On meeting him I wondered if he had wandered in of the set of Gone With The Wind but on spending more time with him I couldn't get Snake Jailbird off The Simpsons out of my mind, the same over emphasised, masculine, sneery speech.

It could easily be four or more stars for the novel, but the voice acting spoiled it for me.

Thanks to Netgalley and Bookoutre Audio

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Ellery Kane for providing me with a complimentary digital ARC audiobook for The House Sitter coming out June 14, 2022. The honest opinions expressed in this review are my own.

It was a little difficult to get into it. The time jumps are hard to follow with an audiobook.

I couldn’t stand Seth. He was misogynistic, horrible and had no redeeming qualities. He ruined a lot of the book for me. The whole horse racing scene and Seth being into gambling seemed random. I didn’t like that he tried to take advantage of Iris and Lydia. I thought he should’ve been killed.

I feel like a lot of the book didn’t actually have to do with housesitting and I’m not sure why it’s called the House Sitter when there was Seth and Lydia.

The twists didn’t really feel like twists and the ending was a little confusing. I’m not sure why Lydia lied about being pregnant and ended up with the detective. In the end there really wasn’t anyone to root for. They were all pretty awful people. I wasn’t sure what the motives were for anyone besides Seth who wanted money. I probably wouldn’t have requested it if I knew about the misogynistic, abusive characters. The summary on Amazon is also a little misleading. It made it seem like Lydia disappeared and Iris was missing or dead. Lydia didn’t disappear.

I was hoping for something more mysterious. I don’t think this book was for me. I just kept questioning what is going on? I’m sure the writing is good, but it was pretty confusing to listen to it. It kept going back and forth and not making sense. Iris and Lydia’s relationship was probably the only thing I enjoyed.