This was definitely the epitome of psychological thriller. While it was dark, chilling, and unnervingly frightening, I found it incredibly gripping, and I couldn't put it down. Sasha discovers on her mother's deathbed that she was adopted. Hoping to learn about her past she turns up at the house she was born and lived in as a young child. She is mistaken for a new babysitter! So what does she do? She pretends she is! As she starts to recall her memories things get twisted!

Both main protagonists were entirely unreliable, but given the storyline and their backgrounds, it just worked perfectly! I didn't particularly like either of them, but again, that's what made the story compelling. I just had to know what the deal was!

I was trying to connect the dots and work out how everything was related, and it kept me guessing until the reveal and the tense set up and shocking twist had me gasping in horror!

I felt very sorry for Cecelia and how she ended up in the situation she did, and I'm on pins and needles for her for the unknown and unpredictable future.

Very good book! All I can say, I did not see that coming!
looking forward to many more from this author.
Thanks to netgalley, the publisher and mostly the author for this entertaining read.

Oh my word, this was creepy in places! I had my suspicions about what was going on, only to have the rug pulled out from under my feet on a couple of occasions. And then the ending... well, that was a clever turn of events. A dark, engrossing, mind-blowing read!

Following the death of her mother and receiving a letter from her telling her she was adopted, Sasha Hammond revisits her past, going to her childhood home, 64 Maple Street, to try and fill in the blanks.
When Cecelia Clarke, the present owner mistakes her for the new nanny, she grabs the job, hoping that living in the house will help her piece together the missing bits.
This is the dream family with the dream life, but it’s not as it seems and Sasha must to everything she can to protect Annabelle & Zachary, the children in her care.
A thrilling and addictive read, told from dual perspectives between Sasha & Emily.
Think you know the connection, but there a numerous surprising and shocking twists.
Well plotted, left me on the edge of my seat with the secrets that were haunting Sasha.
Thanks @caseykelleher @bookouture @netgalley for the eARC

I am a great fan of Casey Kelleher’s books whether it’s an exciting crime thriller or a gripping psychological thriller.
This latest psychological thriller The Babysitters Secret did not disappoint and it’s just as addictive as the rest.
It plays with your head a little as you bit by bit try to piece together this intriguing twisted story.
A chillingly dark tale that leaves you with more questions than answers as you pick over the little clues that are dotted throughout.
You could feel the tension running through this book as slowly the secrets unfolded.
Cecelia has gone back to the house where she
was born hoping to find some answers to her childhood.
When the mother of the family that now lives there mistakes her for the expected new nanny, she seizes the chance of a way in.
As the mother is eager to get to her business appointment she introduces her to the children & leaves quite quickly after telling her the basics.
This was the perfect opportunity for Cecelia having also gotten rid of the real nanny when she called.
There are things she needed to remember & hopefully while living in the house once again they would begin to resurface.
Well written & quite sinister at times I found it a really gripping read.
Thoroughly enjoyed it.

The short chapters make for a great pace and it's clear who's point of view you're reading at each step.
This one keeps you guessing as it takes you further and further down a dark and twisted tale.
Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the arc ebook.

Wow another fab psychological thriller from Casey. The book starts telling the stories of Emily and Sasha. Emily is a mess she’s just moved from the psychiatric ward to rehabilitate in a flat helped by two carers Louise and Charlotte. The crying baby starts again and Emily can’t cope with it. Louise arranges for the Doctor to visit and up the meds which Emily takes. Feeling like a drugged up zombie on these Emily convinces herself that Louise is out to get her put back to the psychiatric ward.
Meanwhile Sasha has just lost her Mum and is struggling with a letter she left her explaining that she had adopted her. Trying to fit the pieces of the jigsaw together from the few early memories of her life Sasha finds herself going back to 64 Maple Street where her young life began.
I did guess one part of this story but there’s so many more twists and turns along the way that you will be gripped. If you like this genre then you will love this book.

★★★★ 4.5 stars

This family is hiding much more than the truth...

This is the second Casey Kelleher thriller I've read and I have to say I am impressed. THE BABYSITTER'S SECRET was as thrilling and as addictive as "Only Child" was and I devoured it in one sitting! A dark and twisted tale, it is a chilling one that will have you questioning who and what to believe as both narrators are unreliable and incredibly complex.

The story starts out with a chilling prologue before moving on to a seemingly random scene and narrative by one of our main characters - Emily. She is unquestionably unreliable from the start with her demeanour, her flashbacks and auditory hallucinations of a crying girl that just only seems to get louder and louder. At first, it appears the girl is left to cry unattended in the flat next door but as the story unfolds it becomes clear the girl is just a delusion that Emily torments herself with. Why? And why is her support worker trying to trick her? Stealing her journal and make her seem crazy? Emily knows she just wants to see her back in the secure unit again.

The next chapter we are introduced to Sasha who turns up to a house she has been given the address to and rings the bell hoping for a glimpse inside the property. The woman who opens the door does so in the midst of a mid-morning panicked rush and assumes that she is the replacement nanny, ushering her in without a second thought or checking her references. Sasha tries to correct her but Cecilia doesn't give her the opportunity and is out the door before the record is set straight. It's OK...she can do this. She can be a nanny. How hard can it be? She wanted the opportunity to glimpse inside this house which holds great significance to her and now she has the perfect opportunity.

Sasha has had a difficult past. Her mother has recently passed away and only then did she discover, via letter her mother left with her solicitor, that she was adopted. Meaning her whole life as she knew it was a lie. But it's hardly surprising as she never really fit in anyway. So now she has in her hand the address for the house in which she had spent her early years...before she was adopted...and she is granted to perfect opportunity to find some connection with the now renovated house. At first, she sees nothing but clean lines and new furnishings. But little by little, memories begin to resurface...and Sasha starts to wonder if these are just dreams or memories?

This is indeed a dark and even disturbing tale. Chilling even. But it is also tinged with sadness. It can also be said that there is a child abuse trigger as well as mental illness. Both narrators are unreliable and complex and the reader can be excused for thinking how the two storylines intersect. But be patient...all will be revealed in due course.

THE BABYSITTER'S SECRET is a twisted tale of secrets and revenge. I was hooked from the very first page and didn't stop until I flipped the very last at the end, devouring the book in just five hours. I was invested from the beginning wanting to know who was gaslighting who and why and how the stories were connected. And my little grey cells were firing all their synapses as I slowly pieced the puzzle together. I saw the twists coming before they were revealed but I didn't care...I'm here for the ride and the entertainment value! The final twist was a surprise but I thought it kind of spoilt it in the end and should have been left as it was. But it was still a thrilling read and that I enjoyed every minute of!

I would like to thank #CaseyKelleher, #Netgalley and #Bookouture for an ARC of #TheBabysittersSecret in exchange for an honest review.

This review appears on my blog at https://stinathebookaholic.blogspot.com/.

Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for the opportunity to read this book. It is a two-person narrated story that seems to be unconnected. It was edge of your seat and challenging to put the pieces together. Every time you think you've figured it out something happens to change your mind. It was sort of like putting a puzzle together without the edges or the corners. I was afraid of what Emily and Sasha would recall from the past that tied the two stories together. It felt like sitting on a time bomb and waiting for it to go off. As it neared the end it did blow up somewhat as the memories and secrets were revealed and the puzzle was solved. From the prologue to the very end, it was a true thriller and a quick read as the tension built. I would recommend this book highly.

I very much enjoyed this book! I was riveted from chapter to chapter and spent the entire book trying to piece the pieces of the puzzle together then were slowly being given by the author. Definitely worth a read!

📚Book Review 📚. Author - Casey Kelleher. Book - The Babysitters Secrets. PUBLICATION DAY - 24th May 2023
Publisher - Bookouture

“📖 Everything I thought I knew about my life is a lie. My mother revealed a terrible, dangerous secret in her last letter to me. But, with her death, any chance of knowing the truth has disappeared. I’ll have to do whatever it takes to find out for myself.

Going back to the house where I was born, I find a family living the life I’d always dreamed of. And when Cecelia, the mother, mistakes me for the new nanny, I seize the chance to move in. Maybe, being in the house every day and night, I will remember more, uncover more, about the secret that haunts me… 📖”

I have read a few of Casey’s books now (I’ll never tell - definitely read if you haven’t already!). I had genuine butterflies in my tummy, reading some parts of this book. Intense ……. Oh yes it was at times … just what I love!!!!! 2 main characters and I loved trying to figure out the connection between them.

Open the wine, put your feet up and jump right in…… enjoy 📕 📚👓 !!

Thank you for allowing my to read and review this ARC.
The Babysitter's Secret by Casey Kelleher. #TheBabysittersSecret #NetGalley #bookouturer

I received an arc copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for my honest opinion of it. This one is really hard to review as I liked parts of it but not so much the other. The story is told in parts by Emily and Sasha and when you think you know the part of each person, there is a twist. It is a little confusing and it does end with a twist. But also did drag out at points. Overall, it was a good read.

In this unpredictable thriller told from two POVs that feel unrelated at first, you never know who is telling the truth, you cannot really know a bad from a good character, but after all that's what this is probably about: are there totally evil people and totally good people out there? I think Casey Kelleher leads us to ponder on this.

The plot is beautifully written, the author slowly guides you through the story, which spans from 20 years before to the present, adding details and memories that will enable you to make assumptions, most of them will be wrong. I'm giving it 4 stars instead of 5 just because the narration for me felt quite slow and repetitive at times and couldn't always draw me in and keep me glued.

So much of this book made my skin crawl.
Sasha, on a pretense, gains access to her childhood home, Cecilia, the mother doesn’t bother to verify her credentials. Emily obviously has issues with her past.
Sasha seems like an ideal nanny, but then the children turn on her and she discovers she needs to up the ante.
This book is rather sinister and insidious. I felt sorry for the kids, first of all. They didn’t ask for all the drama nor the uneasiness.
One of the character is just heinous and shouldn’t be allowed around other people, especially kids.
However, it’s a good lesson to double and triple check your kids’ minder.

You need a strong stomach for this book! It's very dark story and contains some trigger warnings for mental health issues and child abuse.

There are two interwoven narratives here, but the link between them is not immediately evident. The story takes some time to get going and then shifts to turbo at the 70% mark, with a number of twists emerging in the last segment of the book.

Sasha is shocked to discover that she is adopted, and in trying to figure out the full story, she returns to her childhood home. Cecelia, who is living there with her two children, mistakes Sasha for the replacement nanny, which gives the latter the perfect opportunity to be in the house and see what she can remember from the past.

Meanwhile, Emily - an older person - has been released from a psychiatric unit after more than two decades and is struggling to readjust to normal life. But why does she keep hearing the sound of a crying child when nobody else seems able to hear it?

To make matters worse, Emily also suspects her caregiver Louise of deliberately misbehaving with her, though her other caregiver, Charlotte, is very kind towards her.

But how is Sasha connected to Emily? And what is the real story here? The plot is complicated, but it certainly delivers on the suspense!

The Babysitter's Secret by Casey Kelleher

Two characters. Two settings. Two stories. Seemingly unconnected, unrelated but are they? I was hooked trying to figure out the connection between Emily and Sasha.
I enjoyed this read. It was entertaining and even gave me nightmares one night, but it was a bit predictable. I’m not good at figuring out twists but I figured out this one. Thank you NetGalley and Casey Kelleher for the ARC. The Babysitter's Secret publishes May 24, 2023.

A creepy and twisty tale which delves into the dark depths of the human mind. When Sasha accidentally finds herself in her childhood home she is hoping it will help her uncover the dark secrets of her childhood. Meanwhile, does Emily deserve a second chance at life after brutally murdering her son, and is she mentally stable enough for this? This had me gripped from the first page and throughout.

This is a great psychological thriller that really had me hooked.
Sasha goes back to her childhood home as she wants to see if she can find out more about her past. When the door is answered she’s ushered inside and thanked for coming at such short notice. Sasha is confused but says nothing and soon she is the live in babysitter of two children.
She thinks she’ll do it for one day just to find out about the house but soon she’s enjoying her time with the children.
There’s also chapters about Emily who is struggling with her mental health and hears a crying child all the time.
It all becomes clear later in the book but that’s about all I can say without spoiling it for you.
This is a gripping read that had me racing through the pages. A great psychological thriller that I’d highly recommend.
Thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

I’d like to thank Bookouture and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read ‘The Babysitter’s Secret’ by Casey Kelleher in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

Sasha Hammond feels strangely drawn to 64 Maple Street where she once lived with her mother. She knocks at the door not knowing what she’s going to say when the door opens but when it does the owner, Cecelia, mistakes her for the temporary nanny she’s employed for her children Zachary and Annabelle. Sasha doesn’t correct Cecelia and moves in with the family as she senses the children need her.

‘The Babysitter’s Secret’ is a dark and chilling psychological thriller with two points of view, that of Sasha’s and also of Emily who’s been moved out of a secure unit to accommodation in a house under the care of Louise and Charlotte. It has a good beginning that draws me in but the deeper I get into the story the more confused I’ve become and when it slows in the middle I’ve found it hard to continue reading without jumping chapters. I’ve wanted to love this book as I have with the previous five I’ve read by Casey Keller, but dealing with mental health and possible harm to children makes it too dark and depressing for me and I was glad to reach the last page. There’s no doubt it’s well written but it’s just not the type of book to make me want to keep reading.

This is one of those books that I held off on reading for a little while because while the premise sounded interesting, the cover makes it seem like just another average mystery. Which after the fact, is not the case at all. This started off solid and kept on throughout the entire story. It's told from two different perspectives by unreliable narrators and while I believed I knew the connection between the two women from the beginning, I couldn't have been more wrong. I was genuinely surprised at the turn of events in this and I loved that the ending was a good chunk of the book rather than a ten page conclusion and wrap up as most books do so often. Four Stars.

Thank you Netgalley and Bookouture for this ARC.