In this story the Knight in Shining Armor is a hunky Prince Charming. Unfortunately, he's also Jane Eyre's Mr. Rochester and something just isn't right in the magical castle. A fun read.

A mysterious and suspenseful read. Emily lives in London and is barely making ends meet. She can't get her life together and is so immature it's cringe-worthy. She relies on her adoptive parents and only contacts them when she's in a jam. Right off the bat, Emily's not very likable, and it's hard to find pity for her when she loses her job and her slow-to-start acting career implodes.

Once fired from her temp job, we learn that this was an intentional act by Scott, the head of the company Emily's working for. Scott also somehow has a hand in Emily's life suddenly falling apart, setting the stage for the meat of the story. Scott hires Emily to be a housekeeper/caregiver at his home in France, where she'll live with his mysterious wife and their sick child.

The story flowed nicely and I couldn't wait to learn what was going on with this family. The wife was strange, the child even stranger, and the mysterious Yves was just creepy. It was fun to see Emily grow and mature, making her likable (finally!)

Nice summer read. Hard to put down.

Very good summer read. Enjoyed this book. Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this advance reading copy.

What a fun suspense/thriller read this is, a great debut for Anna Downes! In the first chapter, the reader meets Emily, a down-on-her-luck twenty-something young woman barely scraping by with her temp jobs and nonexistent acting career. In chapter two, the reader meets Scott, this very eccentric CEO of a very prosperous and prestigious firm. After Emily's brief temp job at Scott's company, Scott thinks he has the perfect job for Emily, helping out his wife, Nina, and their daughter. Well, that doesn't exactly go as planned and therein lies the story.

What an incredible debut from Anna Downes. This was the perfect, juicy summer thriller - an idyllic setting and spine-tingling suspense. I didn't move from my seat for several hours because I just could not put this book down as my heart was literally thumping in the final chapters, not sure how it was going to end.

Emily is having a rough go of it - she's lost her job, her acting agent, and her apartment in a matter of days. She isn't sure where to turn when the CEO of her former company saves her from a near traffic accident. Scott has a major problem - he's worried about his wife, Nina, and thinks Emily might be the perfect solution. So Scott offers her the incredible opportunity to become the housekeeper/personal assistant for his wife and daughter at their private seaside French estate, Querencia. Emily can't believe her luck - a summer spent poolside with Nina and little Aurelia, soaking in French wine and French sun, no longer having to worry about money. But when Emily uncovers what Scott and Nina have been hiding behind the walls of Querencia, she begins to fear she won't make it back out the front gates.

Downes had me absolutely hooked from the beginning. The book is a thriller - you know something is coming, but I loved that I couldn't guess what it was. The suspense built to a shocking discovery and I was completely along for the ride, in the dark with Emily then equally surprised and made uneasy by the turn of events. The one thing that didn't feel quite right to me about the book was Emily's relationship with her parents - I didn't really see the contentious relationship she claimed to have with them and found it a bit difficult to think someone would take off to a new job in another country without telling anyone at all where she was going. But despite this one note, The Safe Place is an absolute page-turner that had me flying through the final chapters, desperate to see how it would end. This is the perfect summer read to completely engross you and leave you guessing every step of the way.

What an incredible debut! This was a slow burn about isolation and secrets and lies and the lengths one how to in order to keep those buried. I inhaled this book and couldn’t turn the pages fast enough. Told in alternating POVs The story follows a young woman, Emily who has just hit rock bottom (losing her job, her apartment) and is just looking for a sense of belonging. She’s made an offer of a lifetime to become an Au pair to a young girl in a beautiful and secluded home in France all expenses paid and the only cost is her silence about what she sees. This was a gripping suspense thriller and I can not recommend this book fast enough. Grab a copy ASAP!

Thank you to St Martin’s Press, Minotaur Books and NetGalley for letting me read this book in exchange for my honest review.
I did enjoy this one, while it was not a heart stopping thriller it was fairly fast paced and did keep making me want to come back for more. Even though towards the end it did become pretty predictable. But I still enjoyed it and will recommend to others.

Let's see, you have a creepy boss, a mysterious mother, a young girl who doesn't speak, and the "nanny" who is desperate to have a job, and fit in with the other three. This sounds pretty good. The Safe Place has two POV and it's hard to decide who was the most unlikable of all the characters, but somehow that works in the book's favor. For the most part, it's a good, quick read. You probably won't get too invested in the characters. But again, it sort of works. Overall, it was pretty good.



The Safe Place comes out 7.14.2020.



3.5/5 Stars

This was a quick easy read but it left me a little unsatisfied by the ending. I have questions and feel like there were enough loose ends that could have been tied up. The story is told by Emily, her employer Scott and his wife Nina. Scott is a powerful business man who takes advantage of Emily's past and the mess of her current life by offering her a job that seems to solve most of her problems. While the plot was predictable, as Emily starts to really notice what's going on around her, the story certainly picked up and the ending was a lot faster paced. The faster paced ending felt as though it wrapped up quickly and I wish it had been stronger. There were parts of the Emily's past that were hinted at all through the plot but left hanging, long standing issues with her parents felt swept under the rug and things were just great overnight and how things ended with Scott and Nina was a little odd. Downes created an intriguing plot that was a fun read that's worth picking up.

I had a little bit of a hard time finishing this book. It was really quite slow; and it wasn’t until I was halfway through that I was really intrigued to see how the story would end. I will say, it was still a predictable ending that left me unsatisfied and wanting more. Overall, I’d probably give it 2.5-3 stars at best.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book was definitely interesting and I loved the concept but I felt the execution was off. It felt a little too slow-paced for me and I prefer something that captures my attention right away.

I really, really enjoyed this. I've been reading so many psychological thrillers that I was almost burnt out by the time I started this ... but the writing, character development and storyline were really interesting. Always lovely to read about a warm, sunny and beautiful place - I was transported to France. I'll definitely look for more by Anna Downes and would recommend this as a wicked poolside read.

Entertaining with a dash of weird. The writing is well done and the characters are fully developed. Each holds their own and portrays their role well. There are dashes of predictability and odd reactions, but the way everything comes together is creative and enjoyable. I do wish the ending had a bit more detail as I wanted to know what happens next for Emily & the child.

Thank you for the chance to read this book and share my opinion.

Emily has been down on her luck lately with the final straw being fired from her job.
Unsure what to do she is approached by none other than her former boss who has just the job for her.
A caretaker of sorts for his wife & their home.
What seems like an ideal job in the lap of luxury ,however,has more than meets the eye.
This story is filled with surprises from the first to last page.

Totally did not see the end of this book coming! Thought the story was about one plot, and then by the end, all I can say is wow! Read this in 2 days - moves really quickly, and definitely kept my interest!

The Safe Place by Anna Downes is a fantastic summer suspense novel that will keep you guessing until the end. Emily lost her temporary job, her acting agent and her apartment all within the same week. She’s desperate, her family won’t help her anymore after too many disappointments, including forgetting her mother’s birthday. Along comes Scott Denny, the CEO of her former job, but he has an offer that seems too good to be true. It’s a job as a housekeeper in his remote French estate for the summer with his wife, Nina and daughter Aurelia...what a way to spend your summer! But soon, Emily realizes there is a secret within this remote chateaux that Nina and Scott are willing to do anything to keep it hidden.

This book is a little predictable, but lately I feel there is not much that surprises me anymore. As you are reading, you know there is something very sinister going on, Nina seems like an overprotective doting mother but you soon realize she has some deep seeded mental issues. Aurelia is an eccentric little girl, as an understatement...it’s difficult to figure out exactly what the problem is. As for Scott, he seems to be a workaholic, but is really just a bad husband avoiding his family. The estate is creepy, it’s remote, there is no outside communication by phone, internet nothing. Right there is a huge problem where anyone in their right mind would run away as fast as they can. The ending was a little flat. I enjoyed the book, the creepiness, the wanting to shake Emily into realizing the danger she is in, but I was waiting for something BIG to happen. But it wasn’t what I was hoping for. Otherwise, I did enjoy reading something that took my mind off the craziness of the real world.

I would like to thank Netgalley, Minotaur Books and Anna Downes for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Great debut novel from Anna Downes. This book was suspenseful enough to keep me up at night reading it. The characters were well-developed and there were plot twists to keep my guessing. I loved this book and can't wait to read what Downes writes next. She is definitely one to watch for!

This story starts out a slow boil, gently simmering while it draws you in, before it rattles home like a high speed rollercoaster.

I read this novel a couple of months ago and just realized that I hadn't submitted a review. I think that's because the story didn't really resonate with me. I couldn't get past the idea that a young woman, Emily, who is out of work and out of money, agrees to take a job from a stranger who wants her to be a housekeeper, personal assistant, and au pair for his wife and daughter despite the fact that she has absolutely no qualifications for any of those roles. Add to that the fact that when Emily arrives at a weird, rundown, double mansion she finds there is no internet, no cell signal, and no landline, and I'm out.

I thought the novel started well, and I was hooked early on, but it all fell apart for me pretty quickly. It is well written, which leaves me hopeful for the Anna Downes' sophomore offering.

Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for providing me a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review. The Safe Place will be published July 14, 2020.

This was a fun and quick read. I appreciated the multiple perspectives, it provided just the right amount of suspense throughout the book. Reading through Scott's perspective as he set things up for Emily to accept this strange job made it understandable how Emily's naivety could be manipulated. Nina was interesting too - as her past was revealed, the way things connected well. There were a few times Emily's behavior was frustrating and a bit hard to believe, particularly near the end, but overall the story was intriguing and a nice escape.