Thank you netgalley for providing me with this book. It's an author I've never read before and I'm glad that I did! It had some great twists and turns and kept me curious throughout the book! I was never sure which was this book was going to go and his wife was the most mysterious. It kept me wanting more and I'm glad I didn't expect the ending. Thank you netgalley!

Poor Emily is having trouble in all areas of her life - her relationships, her pseudo acting career, and now her job. She arrives at work late, which is the last straw and she is unceremoniously let go, but decides to do her best sticking it out for the rest of the day. All the while, the CEO (Scott) observes her behavior.

When Scott tracks her down and offers her a job as housekeeper/fixer upper/companion to his wife at their remote French estate, she doesn't understand how or why she has been chosen, but she's desperate for a job. She doesn't even take time to read the non-disclosure agreement as she signs her name.

When Emily arrives at Querencia, she is taken with the houses, the land and Scott's beautiful and elegant wife, Nina. Even though she's good with kids, Emily's encounter with 6-year-old Aurelia gets off to a rocky start and Emily starts to wonder what the real root of Aurelia's "sickness" is.

Emily does so much work - redoing the paint, scraping dead rodents out of the walls, gardening, feeding the animals, taking care of Aurelia, and learning how to cook - that it wore me out. But Emily is content, and feels accepted by Nina and Aurelia, even though she's not welcome in the main house. Then she starts to wonder - why isn't she allowed in the main house? And boy does she find more than she bargained for.

After a slow start, this book took off and I found myself holding my breath and hoping that bad things didn't happen (which, come on reader, you know they do!).

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an advance reader's copy for review.

Amazon review: https://www.amazon.com/review/RJDJZ94DLTD57/ref=pe_1098610_137716200_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv

This story started out interesting enough. Wannabe actress down on her luck and wondering what to do next. When the scene switches to Scott and Nina's estate, however, a creepy and suspenseful vibe started humming just below the surface and didn't let up until the final pages of the book. Naive Emily was needy enough to buy into this 'paradise' and it was frustrating at times that she was accepting everything at face value when it was oh so apparent something was drastically wrong. As the story progressed, the creepy vibe intensified and I couldn't put the book down! I don't want to go into details that would spoil this experience for future readers. All I'll say is that this is an enjoyably scary book and I recommend it!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced copy of The Safe Place by Anna Downes in return for an honest review.

Usually when something sounds too good to be true it is, but when Emily is left with no other options she takes a job as a helper for a family in France. It's perfect for her. A beautiful place with a home all her own and all she has to do is help maintain the property and look after Aurelia. Although they are extremely secluded there are enough things to do between pools, yard work and home maintenance that it's easy for her to keep busy.
However, weird things keep happening with Aurelia, the daughter. Although she has strange health conditions some things just never seem to make sense to Emily. She really enjoys Nina's company as the lady of the estate, but feels like with all she is doing there is something she's missing and why doesn't Scott visit more than once every few months?
This one kept me interested from the start but the last few chapters were very suspenseful.

Applause to Anna Downes for her debut novel "The Safe Place." A big Thank you to Minotaur Books and NetGalley for the advanced copy of the book. A dark, highly atmospheric, addictive story. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It was really good escapism. I was immediately hooked from the very beginning of this quick, enthralling, intense storyline. A perfect summer thriller!

Book Synopsis: Emily’s life is quite the train wreck. She’s a struggling actress, working a temp job. All in one day she loses her acting agent, her job and apartment. Every thing is looking pretty bleak until her ex-boss makes her an offer that is to good to turndown. She takes the summer job working as a housekeeper for Scott, his wife Nina and their daughter Aurelia at their gorgeous French estate. However, Emily soon realizes all is not what it seems to be. Unfortunately Emily’s blissful summer job becomes filled with dangerous hidden secrets that could have deadly consequences if she does not cooperate.

This book just came out 7/14- lucky for you, because it's a very intriguing read...

If that cover and setting doesn't hook you...

Everything just works here...to a point...

I can not go into detail because it is a huge SPOILER. I know, I know...I'm sorry.

The ending...(see above)...if what I think happened is what happened...the book is beyond BRILLIANT... otherwise not so much.

The characters aren't quite likable but that's okay- most of the time I enjoy that more in thriller type novels.

Overall, this is a well developed and plotted novel and I would read Ms Downes next novel.

POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT!

Intriguing mystery that drops clues like a gumball machine with many rolling right past only to be retrieved and gathered together in the end.

Emily is flighty and klutz. She cannot keep a job and appears to be an empty-headed blonde. In reality, she is quite smart once she applies herself. Scott is a control freak who appears to only want Emily for assistance to his wife and daughter, but something is definitely off about him. However, something is clearly wrong at the utopia home. Nina gives off the impression that she is acting and trying to appear like a normal wife and mother, just before she goes bat-shit crazy.

Emily spends much of the book wondering what she has gotten herself into. Aurelia is simply strange. (As a side note, I found her name to be distracting because I never knew how to pronounce it).

The writing is good and the story flows. I found myself wanting to slap Emil upside the head for being so accepting. I wanted to slap Nina in general. Even so, I found this novel to be exciting and suspenseful.

A definitely recommended read.


I received an ARC from St. Martin Press through NetGalley. This in no way affects my opinion or rating of this book. I am voluntarily submitting this review and am under no obligation to do so.

"Anna Downes" The Safe Place" ...Miss Anna ,she has a writing style of her own....You have everything in this book to make it a fantastic read,she has you right there while the story is going on,which to me is hard to do! You have mystery,love,hate revenge and family secrets to just begin with! Characters are terrific in the role that they play. I hope there will be more stories like this from her ,I just got so much from this one! I think you will see what I mean after you read her book! Enjoy,like I did! Received from Net Gallery,thank you so very much and thank you "Anna Downes"

The Safe Place is a nice summer thriller because of the creepy (mostly poolside) isolated setting and the weird characters. I found that the book kept my attention and that due to the complexities of the characters, there were many plausible endings (which kept me guessing). I liked the main character, Emily, as well. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press and Anna Downes for the ARC of The Safe Place
I finished the book on Jul 5th, and really enjoyed this novel
This was a really good read, written from the perspective of two different characters. Emily who has recently been let go from her job as a receptionist, gets rehired as a nanny / cook / caretaker by the owner, Scott, of the company who just had her let go. Of course there are ulterior motive but Emily fits the characteristics of the type of person he is looking for to befriend his wife who lives in a very secluded area of France with their daughter, whom Scott says has special needs.
Emily is desperate for a job at this point as she has no money and her bank account is in overdraft, Scott has offered her an incredible salary to take on this job. She agrees and before she knows it she is showing up for work in France and gets to know Nina and their daughter Aurelia
This was a gripping, twisted story that kept me reading. Not the same old drama or twists and turns, it was a refreshing, interesting read, I really enjoyed how the plot was laid out, and how the secret that was being kept was exposed.
I recommend this novel as a must read, well done!

Emily’s life is a mess and she can’t seem to figure out what she’s meant to do with her life. She’s been fired from her temp job, her acting career is going nowhere and she’s being evicted from her apartment. She’s offered a lifeline and what seems like a dream job as a housekeeper/companion to the wife of her former boss. Initially Emily is thrilled with the job, but soon she starts to notice things that just seem off with this family.

The book is well written and is pretty easy to follow even though it’s told from alternating perspectives between Emily and her employer, Scott. We’re given plenty of clues that all is not right with this family, which adds tension and builds some suspense, but ultimately it took too long to build toward the climax. I found myself wondering when things were really going to start happening. The last 25% of the book was when that happened. There were also multiple references to some type of trauma in Emily’s early childhood and it seemed that she was on the verge of remembering, but this isn’t dealt with and those questions remain unanswered. I found this lack of closure to be disappointing and it caused the ending of the book to be a bit of a letdown for me.

A strong debut Thriller, engrossing and intense!

Emily is down on her luck, wishing for rescue, as a white knight comes charging through to save her. By white knight, I mean a very wealthy man, Scott Denny, Emily's former boss, who offers her an unusual opportunity she cannot turn down. Before she knows it, Em is being whisked off to the coast of France to live in a Guest Cottage at the Denny's secluded waterfront estate, Querencia.

Scott's mysterious wife, Nina, lives there with their young daughter, Aurelia. While the job description is foggy, Emily assumes she is part-housekeeper, part-nanny. And while she does perform a large amount of upkeep and renovation projects, as the days pass, it begins to seem she is more of a companion for Nina than anything else. They sit by the pool, drink wine, play with Aurelia. It's a dream job. Until it's not.

This book really intrigued me. For the first 60%, I could not figure out where it was going. Obviously, something was amiss, it's a Thriller, but what was it? Was Scott up to something? Was Nina? Aurelia seemed a little strange, was she possessed? What about Emily? An unreliable narrator if ever there was one, right?

Then at 60%, there was one sentence, one sentence that made every single puzzle piece fall into place for me. It was so glaringly obvious to me after that what was actually going on. While I don't believe that is where I was suppose to figure it all out, as looking back, it was a fairly mundane sentence, I did and it sort of sucked a little of the joy out of it for me.

But, just a little. Overall, I did have a ton of fun reading this. It was quite intense towards the end. Even though the characters might not have made the choices I would have made, I was satisfied with the conclusion. It felt complete.

Thank you so much to the publisher, Minotaur Books, for providing me with a copy to read and review.

I definitely think it will end up being one of the hottest Thrillers of the summer.

Emily is having a bad day; a very bad day and it leaves her not only in a bind but in a mess. She has been fired from her job, lost her agent, and given the notice to vacate by her landlord. Scott appears to have it all, he is successful, wealthy, and handsome.... but he has a problem that he can't fix, that is until he meets Emily....

Scott offers Emily a job at his remote home in France to help his wife Nina. There she meets both Nina and Scott and Nina's daughter Aurelia. It is also there at the home in France that Emily learns that Scott and Nina have secrets.

I found this book to be both interesting and predictable. Will I remember it in months to come, probably not but it did serve to entertain me. The characters are interesting. The storyline is intriguing and the French home while it sounds like a dream come true, turns out to be creepy and strange.

Although I enjoyed this there was just that little bit of something missing in this for me. This is the Author's debut novel and it shows promise and I will be on the lookout for more books from her in the future.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.

Emily Proudman is out of chances.

She’s just been cut off by her agent, fired from her latest temp job, all out of money and still estranged from her parents.

Until a fluke encounter with her ex-boss, investor extraordinaire Scott Denny takes Emily from the cinders of her dismal life to the charm and affluence of his countryside residence in France.

Overnight Emily’s problems disappeared. She has her own car, her own space, money to burn and all she has to do is keep Scott’s wife Nina, and her daughter Aurelia, company, and help out around the property.

Emily is lulled into contentedness by the rhythmic hum of the ocean and the quiet of the isolated French countryside. But something is off about Nina and her fanatical protection of her daughter. It isn’t typical for a six-year-old to be kept isolated and hidden away from society.

Slowly, the idyllic calm starts to show cracks and Emily suddenly realizes she is surrounded by secrets and lies that could implicate her for the rest of her life or potentially put her life in jeopardy.

The storyline is well-paced and cleverly written. The characters are multi-faceted and intriguing. I could not put it down. It’s one-sit-must-read.

Packed with delicious suspense and edgy twists, The Safe Place is an absolutely fascinating read.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press Minotaur Books for the read of Anna Downes’, The Safe Place.

Opinions expressed in my reviews are my own.

Thanks to Minotaur Books and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

"The Safe Place" by Anna Downes follows Emily, an unsuccessful actress and recently fired receptionist. Emily takes a new job working as a "live-in assistant" for a rich family. Her responsibilities include helping the wife, Nina, fix up the large estate, watching and playing with the daughter, and whatever other tasks may need done. At first, this secluded home feels like a paradise, but more and more Emily has a sinking feeling that something isn't quite right.

Downes creates a magical feel with minimal details and I think in this case it almost says more. Emily is being exposed to opulence, but the reader creates it in their own mind. In this way, the heavy lifting is on the reader. This also makes the off-limits house that much more interesting. The few details are so grand, how much more grand is the space unseen?

Emily is a plain character and surprisingly clever for how I felt she was described. I imagined her as a bumbling blonde, almost childlike. In the end, she is strong and clever, but I almost feel like the first half of the book and the second half of the book don't match. Even with the drama and suspense level, it seemed like the second half was amplified and more interesting.

I love how once the tension sets in Downes uses all the reader's senses to articulate the pressing danger that Emily is in. At first the hints are subtle, but more and more things cannot be denied. I especially love the clue of the sour, almost death smell. The faint hints in the beginning make Emily's discoveries all the more intense when she reveals the cause of all the oddities.

In the end, I gave this book 3 stars. I enjoyed it, but the mismatch between the beginning half and the end half made them feel almost like two separate stories with two different Emilys.

This was one of those where the rating changed at the very last minute. NetGalley and St. Martin' Press/Minotaur Publishing did it again! This debut novel from Anna Downes was gripping and chilling. She did a great job helping me to connect with the characters and understand them, right down to every twisted dark place. At first, it felt like a very slow build, but when it hits, it hits quickly. I enjoyed the ride and enjoyed getting inside the character's motives with a dual perspective. A very compelling read.

Emily is an out-of-work actress when she gets fired from her temp office job. Her bank account is overdrawn. The rent is past due. Her family and friends are done with her constant begging for money and shelter. Where can she turn? How can she find The Safe Place, where life isn’t such a struggle?

Enter her former company’s owner, Scott. Scott has a proposition for Emily. Be an au pair for his six-year-old daughter, a personal assistant for his wife, and a housekeeper in his rural French chateau. She will be paid handsomely, given a car and earn free room and board—in France! She just has to sign a NDA and it’s off to her new life on Scott’s private jet.

In this modern take on Rebecca, I did find myself screaming (in my head, hopefully) “don’t be an idiot Emily” frequently. I didn’t have much sympathy for self-absorbed Emily’s many stupid and short-sighted decisions. Emily obviously lives in the moment while I am a planner making it hard to relate to her. Without a feeling of empathy for Emily, I didn’t like The Safe Place as much as I thought I would after reading the publisher’s blurb. However, if Emily’s free-spirit resonates with you, you may enjoy this book more. 3 stars.

Thanks to Minotaur Books and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

Title: The Safe Place
Author: Anna Downes
Genre: Thriller
Rating: 3 out of 5

Emily is a mess.

Emily Proudman just lost her acting agent, her job, and her apartment in one miserable day.

Emily is desperate.

Scott Denny, a successful and charismatic CEO, has a problem that neither his business acumen nor vast wealth can fix. Until he meets Emily.

Emily is perfect.

Scott offers Emily a summer job as a housekeeper on his remote, beautiful French estate. Enchanted by his lovely wife Nina, and his eccentric young daughter, Aurelia, Emily falls headlong into this oasis of wine-soaked days by the pool. But soon Emily realizes that Scott and Nina are hiding dangerous secrets, and if she doesn't play along, the consequences could be deadly.

It's very difficult for me to read books when I don’t like any of the characters. And…I didn’t like any of these. Emily is selfish and naïve to point of being stupid, and I just can’t deal with that. Her loss of her job and her apartment was due to her own incompetence and willful denial of reality, so I didn’t feel sorry for her at all. Then she started crushing on her married boss, was absolutely awful to her mother, and I lost any remaining shred of liking I had for her.

Also: these people are crazy. Not a fan of the characters, so not a fan of the book, although the writing was solid.

Anna Downes was born and raised in the UK but now lives in Australia. The Safe Place is her debut novel.

(Galley courtesy of St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.)

Anna Downes debut novel The Safe Place will surely place her safely amongst the rising stars of mystery-thriller authors.

This very suspense mystery is set in the U.K. and in France, and it is narrated by both Emily Proudman and Scott Denny. Emily is an interesting character. She is a white-hot mess. Even as an adult, she behaves like a petulant child having a tantrum when she bothers to contact her adoptive parents. There is something in Emily’s past, and neither Emily nor the reader ever gets a full view to the dark, repressed childhood trauma. It is clear that she is desperately seeking approval and acceptance.

Her employer Scott Denny and his wife, Nina, are creepy. There is something off or “not quite right” with each of them, and together they are the “power couple” of crazy. These characters add greatly to the story’s foreboding. The entire book, I questioned Scott’s complicity and motivation. Like Emily, I questioned the rumors surrounding Nina and Scott’s relationship. At first, Nina seemed lovely if not lonely and forgotten by her too-busy husband. But looks can be deceiving! Nina remains a little more mysterious since the reader never gets her POV, but Scott’s unreliability as a narrator makes him easily as difficult to know.

Ms. Downes is a good storyteller. Overall the plot is well paced. The story is believable. There are clues to the mystery sprinkled throughout the story (that I caught in hindsight). The characters are interesting and compelling in an odd way. The mystery wasn’t what I initially anticipated, and the ending was quite different that I had expected. There is just enough justice and closure to be satisfying even though I didn’t feel that Emily or I got her full story.
4.5 stars