Emily Proudman is down and out until she is offered a mysterious position out of the blue. Think maybe it comes with a catch? You betchya.

I have no clue what it is about this book, but it just doesn't do it for me. Sometimes I think it is just the wrong time for a person to read a book. I have so many books I have been dying to read right now and I just felt like this book was involved in a diabolical plot to keep me from them. It just moved so. dang. slow! I can't take it! And I didn't feel any kind of atmosphere of thriller in this book. It's too... sunny? I don't know. But it just didn't work for me. It had me skimming a lot... I also felt vaguely like the whole story of being down and out and then receiving a mysterious opportunity is something I've read a lot lately...

Then, I went into this book expecting something totally different than what it is. Like I misread the synopsis or a review or something? And honestly, I feel like this whole review boils down to: It's not you, it's me.

2.5 rounded to 3 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Emily has just been fired from her job and lost her acting agent. She has no money and nowhere to go. She tries to ask her parents for help but soon realizes that isn’t going to happen so she is left with nothing and no idea what to do with herself. She runs into her ex boss, Scott, and he offers her a new job, something better than what she had. When he tells her it would be as a housekeeper/personal assistant to his wife who lives in France with their daughter it seems too good to be true. Emily has no other options so she agrees and soon finds herself at Querencia, their sprawling estate in France.

Nina, Scott’s wife, and daughter Aurelia have the perfect secluded life. However Nina has become overwhelmed with the amount of work the estate needs; tending to the animals, the grounds, remodeling/renovating the guest house and many other things so that is why they hire Emily.

When Emily gets to Querencia her and Nina get along great, but Aurelia is a little off. Emily is told Aurelia has a few different conditions, which would explain her being the way she is. Aurelia doesn’t talk, and that made her a bit creepy which I really enjoyed. The story is told from two different perspectives, Emily and Scott, which was a good way to show what was going on in both of their heads.

The entire time I felt like something was a little off, but I couldn’t pinpoint what it was. Like Emily I was enjoying my time with the family at Querencia. I was so engrossed in the lifestyle they live that I wasn’t looking past it into what could be wrong. How could anything be wrong when you get to lounge by the pool, drink wine and eat delicious food all day?

But of course, things are never what they seem. This was a little predictable, yes, but I really liked the way the story was told and how Emily second guessed herself about things and therefore I did as well.

This was a great summertime thriller and I think it would be a great one to read if you’re just starting to read thrillers!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Emily Proutman’s life is a mess. She’s broke, she’s just lost her job, and her acting agent has quit on her. Desperate and without any prospects, she’s suddenly offered the perfect job by the CEO of the company she previously worked for. The job is as a housekeeper and assistant of sorts on his beautiful French estate, Quarancia. At first, she is completely in awe of Scott’s fabulous wife Nina, and the two quickly become friends. But the longer she stays at Quarancia the more questions she has, like why doesn’t Scott visit more, and what is wrong with their daughter Aurelia who seems to be overcome with maladies. As secrets start to unravel it becomes increasingly apparent that Emily could be in danger if she stays at Quarancia.

The Safe Place was an incredibly fast read for me once I got into it. The build-up a bit slow at the beginning, but it quickly picks up pace. I found it a bit predictable but overall incredibly well done! I didn’t feel an immediate sense of danger but maybe an overall weariness, a “too good to be true” gut feeling, and slowly you can begin to see the danger build piece by piece.

Thank you to Netgalley and Minotaur Books for the review copy! All opinions are my own.

Emily loses her temp job, is totally broke, an unsuccessful actress and just needs to catch a break. When her old boss, Scott, offers her a live-in personal assistant job for his wife, Nina, Emily jumps at the opportunity. She is sent on a private charter plane to their isolated estate in France, where she is given a car and the run of one of the two houses on their property. Scott and Nina have a little girl named Aurelia who has health conditions that make her behave a little oddly. Emily quickly becomes enchanted with Scott’s family even if they are a bit strange…

Okay, I loved the characters in this book. Emily and Nina were so interesting to me. Every single character was SO messed up. I loved the theme of trauma and it’s long lasting impact woven in as we learn about Emily and Nina’s past. The plot was just so strange I couldn’t stop reading until I found out what was really going on with the family. Written from Emily and Scott’s perspective, Downes also throws in tidbits of Nina’s memories. There was excellent imagery and the ending gave me chills. This is my first Anna Downes novel and it will most certainly not be my last.

The Safe Place by Anna Downes
Available July 14, 2020

Emily’s life is a complete mess. Her acting career stalled before it even began, she’s estranged from her parents and just lost her job. Even worse? She called her mother for rent money only to realize she missed her birthday. Again. When her former boss Scott Denny offers her the job of a lifetime, she jumps on it. Working as a personal assistant to Nina, Scott’s beautiful and mysterious wife, seems like a dream job. She quickly finds herself spending her mornings helping to restore the French mansion and sprawling grounds and her afternoons drinking wine and lazing around the pool with Nina and her daughter Aurelia.
As the weeks go on, Emily realizes there is more to the family than she first believed. Aurelia’s mysterious health conditions leave Nina in constant fear. Nina is extremely private and doesn’t want Emily in the family mansion. Scott never seems to want to be around his family. Emily begins to see the cracks in their perfect image and uncovers a dangerous secret that will threaten her very life.
The Safe Place is a fast paced psychological thriller that excels at making Emily her own worst enemy. Her life is a complete hot mess. She can’t keep a job or remember her lines at acting auditions. She can never budget properly and is always short on rent money. Her strained relationship with her parents is further stressed when she makes the biggest mistake-calling her mother for money on her mother’s birthday. Her parents just want her to get her life together and Emily just doesn’t seem capable of it. She’s never really been around kids or worked as a personal assistant before she takes the job with the Denny family so it’s understandable how she misses so many warning signs. She’s immediately caught up in their wealth and beautiful property that the lavish lifestyle overshadows how odd it is that two women, with no construction or design experience, are renovating a large mansion.
Anna Downes crafted a tightly woven story full of twists and turns where the tension amongst the characters is a character itself. We know something is wrong, and Emily feels it too. Putting your finger on what is wrong is what makes for such an engaging and interesting read.
Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read and review this title. All opinions and mistakes are my own.

The Safe Place is a psychological thriller that kept me guessing how the story would end. Emily and the storyline were intriguing and kept me engaged throughout the book. This is Anne Downes’ debut novel and I will definitely read her next book.

This book is a bit mystery, a bit thriller and a bit suspense. I do recommend this bad boy if you are looking to escape (and that is what books are for) the world for a bit.

Many thanks to Netgalley and St Martin's Press for this advanced readers copy. This book will release in July 2020.

Emily's life is a mess. She has no friends, no money, she lost her job, and she's way behind on rent. So when her former boss offers her a job as a housekeeper, on his remote estate in France, how could she possibly pass it up? Well Emily, if things appear to be too good to be true, they usually are(especially in books🤣). Unfortunately Emily has to figure this out the hard way. At first, Emily is loving everything about this set-up, she doesn't need to worry about money, and she's loving being on the Estate with Nina and her little girl. As per usual though, things can change pretty quickly.
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This was a page turner for sure, I did feel it was more of a family drama than an intense thriller, but it still held my attention. The writing style was excellent. I love when a book can be predictable, but the writing is so good that it's still worth the read. I seriously wanted to head bunt Emily multiple times throughout this book though, her decisions for the most part, were very poor🤣. Then again, once you learn more about her, you understand her and her bad decisions a lot better, but still, come on girl! This was an entertaining read for sure

Emily thinks Querencia, the French estate where she's working for Scott, his wife Nina, and their daughter Aurelia, is lovely, especially as a retreat from London where things haven't gone well for her. There's something a little off, though especially with Nina. Why is there no internet? What's up with Aurelia, who has medical issues? And why doesn't Scott come to visit? No matter- at least at first. Emily's happy eating, drinking, and hanging by the pool when she's not working but then things get weird. Told mostly from Emily's point of view, but also by Scott and an unnamed narrator, this is one with whiffs of the gothic. I kept thinking, btw, that the estate was the epitome of social distancing and quarantine- an unintended consequence of having read it during the pandemic. No spoilers from me as to what happens. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. A good read.

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Content Rating: 18+
Genre: Fiction, Thriller, Suspense
Published: July 14, 2020, by Minotaur Books


The Safe Place is Anna Downes' debut novel about a woman who takes a job as a live-in housekeeper on a remote French estate. When I first learned about this book and that Downes spent one year as a housekeeper on a secluded French estate, it piqued my interest even more. As far as debut novels go, I thought this was a good one. The writing was well done, and some scenes were so descriptive I could visualize the French coast and feel the spray of the ocean on my face. Throughout the book, there was a creepy, dark, eerie feel that adds an atmospheric aspect to the book. The character development was exceptionally well done and is the driving force behind the story. The Safe Place was a bit predictable, but I don't feel that that took away from the book's enjoyment.

The Safe Pace is told from the two main character's points of view. Scott Denny, a wealthy, successful CEO of a vast empire, and Emily Proudman, who works as a temporary receptionist at one of Scott's offices. Scott is wealthy beyond all imagination. He can buy or manipulate any situation and anybody. And that is precisely what he does with Emily. Unbeknownst to Emily, Scott has her fired from her temp position and then offers her the seemingly perfect job as a housekeeper, cook, nanny, and friend for his wife Nina and young daughter Aurelia at their beautiful remote estate, Querencia, in France. Emily sees Scott as her savior and develops a strange inappropriate attraction to him.

"…and then, from out of nowhere, Mr. Denny, Emily's ex-boss, was leaping out of the chaos like a handsome human shield, a superhero, a knight with colors flying."

Emily was a bit of a mess and was not likable in the beginning. She was always thinking of herself as a victim, floating through life with no direction. She has a stressed relationship with her parents taking them for granted and only contacting them when she needs money. Emily has some unresolved issues with them, and her past that the author doesn't fully explore or explain, and I would have liked a little more elucidation.

When Emily arrives at Querencia, she falls in love with everything she sees. She finds Nina and Aurelia to be odd and has a feeling that something is off about them, but this doesn't stop her from falling in love with them too.

"She was gorgeous- of course she was- but there was something distinctly odd about Nina, something Emily couldn't put into words."

At one point in the book Scott shows up at Querencia for a visit, and things indeed take a bizarre turn.

"She was smiling, but he could see through it. He knew what her happiness looked like, and it was not this."

Things are going well for a while, but slowly over time, things begin to unravel, and then towards the end of the book bam, everything goes crazy, and we have a pickup in the pace of the book.

The Safe Place was a slow burn of a thriller with an interesting premise. I did like the little gems the author put into the book—Downes names the house Querencia, which translates to haunt. I am not sure I loved the ending, but I can't say much more than that. I did like how Emily matured and became a better person in the end. However, there were other things about the ending that left me wanting more. The Safe Place was an easy read with some tense moments but didn't have that WOW moment; however, overall, I did enjoy it.

* Please note the quotes in my review are subject to change once the book is published. *

** I kindly received this galley by way of NetGalley, publisher, and author. I was not contacted, asked, or required to leave a review. I received no compensation, financial or otherwise. I have voluntarily read this book, and this review is my honest opinion. **

In The Safe Place, we meet Emily. She’s having a run of bad luck. She’s young and wants to be an actress, but has been unsuccessful at landing an acting job, so she takes a temp job. In one rotten day, she loses her acting agent, her job and her apartment. She may have to call her parents for help. Again.
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But then we meet Scott. He’s the wealthy CEO of the company that fired Emily. And Scott has a problem that maybe Emily can help him fix. Scott has piles of money and he has a French estate. Just so happens that Scott’s wife Nina and their young daughter, Aurelia, live on the estate while Scott works in London. And Scott needs someone to be a housekeeper/nanny for the summer. Enter Emily.
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Emily thinks she’s won the lottery. She thinks she’s found a great job that pays well and she gets to stay at a gorgeous estate. Scott has made it all sound perfect. But what happens when something sounds too good to be true?
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I flew through The Safe Place in one afternoon. I loved this thriller/family drama wrapped up in a mystery. And I knew nothing about the story going in and that seems to work in my favor. I loved the escape this book gave me. Check it out for yourself on Tuesday! Thank you to Minotaur Books and NetGalley for my copy.

It’s not a hard decision to make. You’re estranged from your parents. You failed an audition, your agent just dropped you and you were fired from your temp job. Who wouldn’t jump at the chance offered by your boss, the charismatic, wealthy financier Scott Denny. He asks you to be an assistant to his wife Nina. You’ll be part cook, part gardener and part babysitter to their daughter Aurelia at their beautiful, remote farmhouse on the coast of France. Oh, the job comes with your own guest house, Land Rover to drive, expense account and generous salary. You’ll take the job, right? Of course. And so does Emily Proudman. Unfortunately, she misses some behind the scenes manipulation.

When Emily arrives in France, she is driven to the estate “Querencia” by Yves who does odd jobs around the house. Soon Emily is hard at work and totally captivated by the ethereal, fragile Nina and the troubled Aurelia. However, she notices that things are not as perfect as they originally seemed. Secrets cannot be kept forever and when Emily discovers what is hidden in front of her eyes, she is devastated.

The Safe Place is a mystery guaranteed to keep you up at night. The scenery, the farmhouse, the fast paced plot and well described characters will stay in your head long after you read the final page. 5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley, St.Martin’s Press and Anna Downes for this ARC.

This book was exactly what I needed at the time of reading - a page-turning slow burn thriller that kept my interest. I was drawn in from the beginning of this story about a down-on-her-luck girl who landed what seems to be a dream job out of the blue. I enjoyed the alternating viewpoint perspective between Emily and Scott, as the reader is not sure who to trust. Overall, I enjoyed this book, but it was not my favorite. I had a hard time connecting to the main character in this book. She seemed flighty and selfish in the beginning, and even though she redeemed herself by the end, I still found her hard to root for. I thought the story line was very intriguing, and the twist made sense, but certain parts of the story that didn't go anywhere received too much detail, while I thought other, more relevant story lines could have used more. Not a bad pick to slip into your beach bag if you're looking for a light thriller!

This is a good book that starts off strong but doesn't really follow through. Emily's character is well developed during the course of the book, but the other main characters, Scott and Nina, are somewhat sketched in with a lot of missing parts to be filled in by assumption of the reader. Even more so with Yves and Verity. There were some great possibilities with those characters! And, while I am a huge proponent of not telling the reader every single darn thing, there is a point where the gap becomes a bit too large. This book does not breach the gap. And, I wanted more because what we did get was good! A very intriguing plot, interesting characters, and the possibility of one of those books that hits home with the reader if not for those little bits that didn't quite get fully looped in to the storyline. I needed that little more. This is Ms. Downes' first book and I will definitely be looking for her next one.

This Author is really great. I really loved this book. This tale was highly engrossing and highly recommendable!!

Emily lives a scattered life in London. She lives paycheck to paycheck and has a relatively new job as a receptionist at a financial services firm. She spends spare moments going on acting auditions. She has a less than perfect relationship with her adoptive parents. Then all in one horrible day, she gets fired, her acting agent drops her and she gets kicked out of her apartment. Then as if by fate, Scott the CEO from her former employer offers her a job as a housekeeper/au pair at his seaside French property. He will help his wife Nina with DIY projects around the house and help out with their young daughter, Aurelia.

Emily takes the job and while there are some slightly off putting things, she loves her new life and quickly develops a rapport with Nina and her daughter Aurelia. Emily feels the happiest she's felt in a long time. But then she starts noticing things that don't quite add up.

This was an impressive effort for a debut thriller. The narrative alternated between Emily's, Scott's and Nina's perspectives. The story hooked me right in and I couldn't help but hope that Emily would wake up to the situation that she was in. The story was a bit predictable but I went with it as an escapist read. While the premise of a troubled, down on her luck female falling into the hands of scheming people is not a new thriller trope, I really did enjoy this story and the new take the author had on it. And I loved the cover of this book. Take me there please!

This book keeps you on your toes the entire time. All I wanted to do was read more about Emily, and find out the secret that Nina and Scott were keeping. By the time you find out, you are so captivated by the words on your paper that all you can do is read until you are done! I’m not sure the ending satisfied by, but the rest of the story makes up for it!

CW/spoiler alert: mental illness, child abduction

Thank you Netgalley for a free ARC of this in exchange for an honest review!!

Where do I start?! How about the beginning. So this book starts off strong. Scott is a unusual character and you can tell right off the bat he has some issues. Emily is likable right away with her quirky self. I actually got so hooked right from the get go! Once Emily gets to the estate with Nina and her daughter things get weird. I’m personally a very impatient person so I felt like I wasn’t getting enough answers fast enough. I just kept getting more and more confused. When I finally come to the revelations I was thinking “Okay this is actually pretty good”! So it starts off at a 4/5 star rating for me. Lulls to a 2/3 star rating in the middle then jumps up to a 4ish star rating with that ending. By the end you know all these people are crazy and it all comes to a head. It plays out actually pretty great....an ending I didn’t exactly expect. All in all is it worth the read? Maybe so. Honestly I probably won’t recommend it because there are just better books out there. I feel bad when I rate a book lower because I couldn’t have done a better job at writing it. The author DID do a great job. But sadly this one just didn’t quite do it for me...

A young woman gets the chance to start her life over when she loses her job and her acting prospects within the same day. Her new life, however, comes at a price. She just doesn’t know she’s paying it. Debut author Anna Downes amps up the thrill factor toward the end of her slow-to-start novel The Safe Place.

Emily Proudman thought she really could make a go of her newest temp job. She put in her best—well, maybe her second best—effort to get to the office in downtown London on time so she could answer phones and get coffee for people. It seemed like the perfect job for her, because she could take time off to go to auditions. Her acting career is on the cusp of taking off, she just knows it. She just needs the right role.

Unfortunately, that role isn’t coming any time soon. In fact, it’s pretty much long gone when Emily learns that her agent is moving and the agency isn’t retaining Emily as a client. Which wouldn’t be so bad if she hadn’t been fired. Or gone back to her flat only to find out she’s being evicted.

She could move back in with her parents, but she hates the way they doubt her abilities. Yes, it wouldn’t kill her to call home for something other than money, but her mom and dad just don’t get it. They never have. Maybe it’s because she’s adopted.

Everything is going downhill fast. Then the CEO of the company that just fired her approaches her with a new job. Scott Denny is handsome, charming, and seems genuinely worried about Emily’s situation. When he offers her the opportunity to get out of England and become his wife’s personal assistant in their ocean-front home in France, it seems like something out of the movies.

Emily arrives in France with the understanding that she’s going to take care of the house and help with Scott’s six-year-old daughter, Aurelia. Nina, Scott’s wife, welcomes Emily with open arms. Within weeks of arriving, Emily feels a sense of belonging at the house. Yes, she spends her days painting, weeding, and trying to make friends with Aurelia, but for once she knows her place and is completely content with life.

Except she can’t ignore the nagging feeling that Aurelia is not all right. It’s more than just the medical condition that Scott and Nina have described. The longer Emily stays in France, the more she realizes that she may have walked into a situation much bigger than she, Nina, and Scott can all handle.

Author Anna Downes presents readers with the charming bustle of London before moving Emily to the coast of France, a welcome change from the usual locations of Paris or another large city. The setting is ideal for keeping secrets. While Emily really doesn’t have any, she figures out that Nina does.

The pacing of the story, however, works against the book. Emily knows Nina is hiding something from her, and she suspects it might be something big. Yet for weeks she allows herself to get distracted by all the manual labor at the house. While Emily’s change of fortune is welcome after all the challenges she experiences in London, several chapters of her enjoying lunch on the back patio by the pool or her renewed sense of confidence don’t make for as compelling reading.

Downes manages to keep readers engaged by alternating chapters from the points of view of Emily, Scott, and an unnamed character. Readers won’t have much trouble guessing who the third person is, and as the book progresses even that third POV character’s issues become clear. What remains, then, is waiting for Emily to catch up to it all. The engagement might turn into impatience for some.

Once the ball starts rolling, it speeds toward the end. By that time, however, it might be too late for some readers to stay with the book. This novel might provide some with a pleasant distraction, but it doesn’t necessarily challenge readers. I recommend they Borrow The Safe Place.

I received an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. You can get your copy here:

https://www.amazon.com/Safe-Place-Novel-Anna-Downes-ebook/dp/B0818B89T9/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=safe+place+by+anna+downes&qid=1593721692&sr=8-1

I just finished this book and all I can say is HOLY CRAP, to keep it lightly. We begin this book with Emily pulling up to a private jet center in a car driven by an actual driver. She then boards a private plane and lands with yet another private driver there to pick her up. They then arrive at an estate with the name Querencia. Ironic, since the street names that she passed were in French and the Estate name is clearly Spanish coming from the name Desire. We are then brought to Chapter One with Emily auditioning in a cold, drafty church hall. Not only did she bomb the audition, but she came back to work late from her “lunch” to be fired from her temp job. Quite the day! The next chapter toggles to Scott, as is the trend with this book. Back and forth between people. Scott is trying to self-mutilate himself before his next appointment. We then go back to Emily who goes to the grocery store and is unsuccessful in purchasing anything and then finds out her rent has bounced and is getting kicked out of her apartment-all this has happened all at once, where she seems like she cannot catch a break. The story soon unfolds as we learn that Emily had actually worked for Scott and that was how they were intertwined. Emily was a temp receptionist in his office. Scott found her entertaining, as she didn’t have a clue what was going on. Scott put her through quite the tasks, just to see if she would do them. Various tedious, redundant tasks, and she succeeded in doing these mindless tasks. Scott hatches quite the plan for Emily and while she is down and out and at her most vulnerable, she falls for it, hook, line and sinker. We are then taken on the adventure of Emily at Querencia. We are taken on quite the adventure! There were so many times that I was freaking out, screaming at Emily, questioning everything. Calculating, manipulative, masochistic, and so many descriptive words can be used to describe this book. I LOVED the author’s ability to describe every situation. I was on the edge of my seat throughout this book. I drank in this book in one afternoon! The author was just AMAZING! This story was soooo good! I am going to be chasing the next amazing book for the next month! Safe place, it was NOT! The ending had me blown away. I did not see that coming!