From the title the story was not what I was expecting at all - it had all the markings of a thriller but just missed that  truly creepy thriller mark, that said I  did enjoy the book

Cassie Macreddin has just bought historic Hindon House, it is in major need to upgrading and repairs but her vision to transform it into a B&B is starting to be thwarted from the moment she got the keys. From the power going out , to sabotaged floorboards, Cassie is beginning to realise someone doesn't want her in the house - be it human or spirit, she is determined to plow on as failure isnt an option.

Once the secret that the house was keeping was finally revealed the title finally made sense!

In this thriller-mystery novel, Keogh brings readers to a sleepy town in the English countryside, where recently widowed Cassie has purchased the decrepit Hindon House. Cassie, at first, focuses on moving on from her husband’s death and renovating and restoring Hindon Houses, but a series of mysterious events and strange reactions from the villagers add to the eerie atmosphere and the thriller aspect of this novel. The rest of the novel then follows Cassie around the village during her renovations as things become more and more complicated and mysterious. Keogh’s characters and setting really drive the novel forward, as so much of the tension involves characters, their relationships, their emotions, and the setting (Hindon House and the surrounding village). The characters and their relationships, as well as Cassie’s understanding of the other characters, really drive the story forward and shape the mystery and the backstory of Hindon House that Cassie unwittingly stumbled upon. Keogh’s thriller of a mystery immerses them in a charming English village with a dark past, and her characters engage the readers through their liveliness and their mysterious, vague pasts. The House Keeper lives up to Keogh’s standards and is a great introduction to her body of work.

I enjoyed this very creepy novel from Valerie. I couldn't stop reading this one and it led me up the wrong paths with its twisty clues. Very addictive and brilliant. My thanks to netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

Cassie moves to the country to escape her past and build her dream. She dreams of owning and running a B &B . She falls in love with Hindon House a big run down mansion. She soon discovers that someone in the town doesn't want her to own Hindon House. Strange things start to happen and very strategic accidents. Cassie doesn't know if it's someone close to her or who it might be.
This is a slow, twisty mystery. I enjoyed the twists in the end and didn't see them coming. I especially loved the villain. I want to say more but won't ruin the book. I also liked Cassie's backstory.. is she a terrible person or someone were rooting for ?

Thanks to #BoldwoodBooks and #NetGalley for providing me with the ARC of #TheHouseKeeper by #ValerieKeogh. Still reeling from the sudden death of her husband, a young widow jumps into fulfilling her dream of a lifetime: opening a bed and breakfast out in the countryside. Cassie finds the perfect old house to help with her plan, to heal her pain and maybe hide a secret or two, but Hindon House has some secrets of its own to hide. The story weaves into a decent little mystery that got me staying up late a couple of nights! This was a well-crafted, taut story that kept me guessing until the very end.

As others before me have said in reviews the title didn't quite hit the mark with this.
Following a recent tragedy, Cassington sells up and moves in pursuit of her dream to start up a B&B and Hindon House seems like the perfect location to renovate and make her dream a reality.
It isn't long before strange happenings alert Cassie that all is not as it seems at Hindon House.
This book was bound with twists and turns and kept me guessing from start to end.

Cassie buys a dilapidated old house to restore to glory as a B&B. But a series of suspicious and spooky incidents make her think that someone is trying to force her out of her new home...
The Housekeeper is a psychological thriller set in the UK.
Cassie was recently widowed and wants a fresh start. She leaves London for the country and intends to fully renovate Hindon House. But the lights and electrics are constantly failing despite repeated checks by professionals. She starts to fear that someone doesn't want her to stay in the house but her steely resolve is determined to see the project through.
The book is written in the third person in the present day throughout, with some recollections of Cassie's past. Cassie makes several references to a secret that hints she might have a dangerous streak. I felt desperately sad as her marriage and IVF journey are described as well as her husband's death in a car crash.
The atmosphere is really spooky at times. There is a good tension created as Cassie begins to fear for her life as dangerous incidents start to stack up. I guessed the twist of who but had no idea on why. The front cover offers a clue so don't look too closely... I don't quite 'get' the title but I suppose it could have multiple interpretations.
The Housekeeper has a creepy atmosphere and emotional plot twists.

Can’t believe I’ve not read any of this lady’s work before…. My TBR pile has grown now!
Story of loss and a woman wanting to try to grieve and recover. Only to be met with further turmoil in this thriller full of twists!! LOVED how we as the reader are kept on edge and really does pack a punch. Great read! Thanks netgalley, author, publisher ⭐️

THE HOUSE KEEPER interested me from the beginning, with a plot that promised intrigue and mystery. I was drawn into the story initially but around the 30% mark, the plot started dragging and not much progress was being made. There was too much time spent on plot elements that didn’t move the story forward and as a result, I found myself losing interest and just trying to make it to the end. The twist at the end did redeem it slightly, but not enough to make up for more than half of a book that was bloated and a bit overwritten.

Thanks to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for the opportunity to read and review THE HOUSE KEEPER.

Another sort of new-to-me author is Valerie Keogh. I loved her book, The Trophy Wife, and that one made me look into her other novels and start reading her back list. The House Keeper is a new book, out now. Worth your time to read. I am a fan of reading a book without knowing exactly what it’s about. If I see an author I like, I happily go into it blindly and trust that the author is going to keep me engaged with the story. Such was the case with this book!

Here are the details:

An unwelcome guest? Still in shock after the tragic death of husband Richie, Cassie Macreddin hopes that her new home, historic Hindon House, is the place where she can heal her pain and hide her secrets. But Hindon House has secrets of its own… Cassie soon realises that not everyone is pleased at her arrival and that someone is actively trying to make her leave Hindon House….but who? And why? As events escalate, Cassie must fight to save her home…and maybe even her life.

Read it now!

The main character, Cassie, recently widowed, leaves London to move to the countryside to fulfill her life long dream to run a B&B. Enter Hinton House, a large manor left to be overtaken by ivy, brambles, mold and rot. Cassie begins renovations on the house and strange things start to happen. Lights go off, breakers switched, running water, uplifted floorboards and more. With every obstacle, she desperately seeks out the history of the home and its past owners, convinced someone is out to get her. When things continued to happen throughout the book, it made me suspicious of different people, other possible paranormal activity, but in the end the real story was nowhere near what I had expected.
It took me several days to read, longer than normal, it was slow in parts (not the fast paced thriller I had expected). The MC’s constant internal confidence battles and psychological breakdowns had me both angry and sympathetic. I really felt for her situation, and could feel her frustration, but also wanted to give her a swift kick-in-the-butt at times as well.

Not my favourite book by this author. I found the first half meandering and I was wondering where the thriller element was going to come in. I think I just didn't believe in the main character and so the story didn't hold my attention.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.
That was an interesting and different book. I did not expect any of the end.
It is kind of slower moving at first and then things go haywire as more things happen while construction to restore Hindon house continues. Things really get interesting when we find out what happened there and who is trying to cover things up.
It was a chaotic but good book. I didn’t expect the ending at all.

The Queen of Mystery is back with a bang.............


The Housekeeper by Valerie Keogh brings to you a fast paced psychological thriller with an immersive plot and equally interesting characters. The plot at once draws your attention with its mysterious tone. With each page tension and secrets start rising in the atmosphere. The plot transcends an aura of thrill inside you. Indeed, Valerie Keogh is a master story teller. In fact, her writing style is quite interesting where she chooses each word carefully making the narrative as simple as possible.

The plot sparks interest with every page and I can assure you that every incident will come as a surprise for you. Also, the tertiary characters have an equal footing with the main character. Cassie's character is very mysterious where readers interact not only with her present but with her shady past also. And, then you hit the climax like a fast speed car giving you an adrenaline rush. For me the book was awesome and exciting. Thanks to Boldwood Books and Netgalley for providing me with an opportunity to read and review the book.

After the death of her husband Richie, Cassie Macreddin continues on with the plans that they had together, to own and operate a B&B. She purchases the historic Hindon House. The perfect place for her to recover from her tragic past.

Not everyone is happy with her decision in the town. It seems that someone is trying to chase her from her plans. The lights go off, and the electric breaker keeps getting turned off. She hires the best, or so she thought to get started on the remoldeing. It is a huge undertaking with The things that go on you would think that this is a haunted house, well it may very well be.

Cassie meets and makes friends with an elderly lady and they often visit each other. She learns a little more about the house and about who had previously lived there, and why they left. The man that she has hired to do the work Daniel Cody seems to be legit, so between the two of them, she starts going through and getting rid of items that were left behind.
A bit of a back story, her husband prior to dying had asked Cassie for a divorce. He is no longer happy in the marriage, while on the way to a friend's house for a party, there is a tragic accident that she feels was her fault.

Things get stranger and stranger until the culmination, had me floored, never saw it coming. But that is what a good story is about, right? Keep the reader hooked until the last page. I really enjoyed the book. I do intend to read more by this author!

I give it 5 stars!

Wow what a great book, Which just keeps on giving. Enjoyed every twist and turn and the ending was just brilliant. Highly recommend this book.

I did finish it but this was not one of her best books a little bit disappointed nothing much going on in it the thrill factor seemed to be missing

Valerie Keogh is an author who writes the most superb books. I have read the majority (if not all) of her work. I am now at the point that I dont need to check the blurb or even see the cover. If it has Valerie's name on it, I really want to read it!

The Housekeeper is an immensely addictive psychological thriller. I found myself almost inhaling this one! Even the title isn't as straightforward as you would think.

Valerie has created an atmospheric and twisty story. Cassie, the main character, a widow whose husband died in a car crash, wants a fresh start in the country. She buys an old dilapidated house to make into a BnB. Strange things start happening, and Cassie starts to think someone wants her out.

I found the fact that I suspected everyone and knew nothing, such an enjoyable read. Everyone and everything held secrets! I loved it! It's as simple as that. The characters were, as always, so well created that it was easy to get invested and obsessed with wanting to get all the answers.

The creepy factor was high, too! I was extremely pleased I had started to read The Housekeeper during the day. By the time I had got to the last quarter it was going dark and I had to turn al the lights on! It crept me out quite a lot. Valerie Keogh has done it yet again! She knows how to tick every single box for me to have a belter of a read.
Thanks to Rachel's Random Resources and Boldwood Books and NetGalley.

The Housekeeper was a great read. The main character, Cassie, left London to move to the countryside and she bought a large manor house for her to turn into a B&B. When she moved, she got a lot of funny looks when she went into the town and she started to get suspicious. Cassie begins work on the house and strange things happen in the house and she is trying to work out the history of the house and its previous owners. She is convinced someone is out to kill her. When things began to happen throughout the book, it made me suspicious of different people but who it turned out to be really shocked me.

I thought it started off as a slow burner as mysterious things happened around the house. The pace picked up at the end when everything started coming together and it was shocking. I was so eager to know the truth behind the house and I was hooked from the first chapter. I did find the title was misleading as I was expecting a housekeeper to turn up and look after the house but it didn’t take anything away from the story.

The writing style was good in this book, it kept me engaged and made me guessing all the time. The characters were intriguing, the main character was well developed and I was curious about her secrets. I’ve read a few of this authors books and they are consistently good! I highly recommend this author and their books.

A House Keeper but not as you may expect….An interesting story building on the premise of a widow selling up in London and buying her dream home to turn into a B and B……however there is a lot of guilt she is trying to run away from and inevitably this follows her…….also the dream home is more than in need of renovation…..and it has a past,a murky one that some people want left in the past and don’t take kindly to the possibility of it all being unearthed The story is told well,although Cassie ( main character ) is very defensive and has a habit of causing herself untold grief by seeing slights that just aren’t there half the time…...there are reasons for this though…..(there are too many coffees mentioned 😊 at one point Cassie was on her 4th in the matter of a couple of hours ) nevertheless a good intriguing story that took a surprise twist near the end and was not what I was expecting at all….😎