3* gore score 0.
A new author to me. Thanks to Netgalley for the chance to read the arc.
Every parents nightmare a child going missing. You get a real sense of the panic and distress. How their lives and relationships are affected.
Although I felt the middle section lagged.
Whose finger prints were on the buggy catch?? Not sure we got to find out.
The time frame switches between the past and the present. Told from the perspective of Ava and Matt.
Found the repetition of the phrase yesterday last year today tiresome after the first few times.
Is Evas reaction to Matt an over reaction?
This grabbed my interest initially but didn’t maintain it throughout. I didn’t buy into the penultimate reveal, so the ending didn’t really work for me.
#netgalley. #thehousewarming

Not one of my favorites. Just ok. Ava is going thru every mother's worst nightmare of a missing child. All this book seemed was a lot of self narrative of would have could have should have. Ava puts little Abi in a"push chair" turns her back to do some errands, then Abi is gone. Ava describes Abi as a wanderer and looks on odd places for her like a hamper and her neighbor s house. The child is 2! Mother made herself sound irresponsible. Not the best read and did not grab me

Ava only left her daughter in the pushchair for five minutes. The buckle was fastened, and she was sure it was safe. But when she came downstairs, the door was open and Abi was gone.

I can't imagine the sheer terror Ava must have felt when she ran up and down the streets looking for her daughter, she must have been frantic. My heart bled for Ava and Matt as they tried to go on day after day wondering what happened to their daughter.

I felt every emotion possible reading this story and I'm sure you will too. A heartbreaking read but it's beautifully and sensitively written by the author. Amazing.

It’s been a year since the fateful day that Ava and Matts daughter Abi was taken from her pushchair, now the Lovegoods are throwing a housewarming party to show their new house renovations. Ava doesn’t want to go as she can’t bear the idea of being around people who know nothing of her pain and suffering. Her husband Matt is worried about her introversion and persuades her to agree to go. Will they find out any details of what happened to Abi?

A fantastic novel with richly developed characters. Another hit by S.E Lynes!

Although sad, I loved this book. SO well written, believable characters you can emphasize with, and a great story line. Don't miss reading this one.

The author of this book never fails to please. Fast paced all the way through with the usual standard of twists. Keeps the reader hooked from one page to the next. Definitely not one to be missed!

A new book by S.E. Lynes is always a cue to drop everything else; she certainly knows how to craft a page turner, but also writes really really well.

A year after her two year old daughter Abi disappeared from her own home, Ava is hanging by a thread torn apart by guilt and grief, her new baby all that's keeping her going. With no new leads to go on, the police investigation into Abi's disappearance has ground to a halt - it seems impossible Ava and husband Matt will ever find out what really happened, and life as they knew it has also more or less ground to a halt. Best friends Neil and Bella, initially supportive, have more or less disappeared into the woodwork.

(The women have very currently-fashionable names which sound more like they should belong to the children - Ava, Bella. I don't think I've ever met an adult with these names!)

A turning point comes when neighbours Johnnie and Jennifer Lovegood throw a housewarming party to show off their dazzlingly remodelled (largely by builder Neil) home. Johnnie seems kind of a jerk, but Jennifer seems lovely. And at this party, reluctant though Ava was to attend it, the truth gradually begins to unfurl.

There are countless missing-child thrillers (not that this could be called a thriller) on the market, but the quality of the writing and the insights here makes it stand out. And the whole truth, once finally revealed, is devastating and jaw-dropping - I certainly didn't see it coming.

A moving story about responsibility, loss, and looking out for each other - recommended.

When two year old Abi disappears her mum, Ava, realises she never closed the door to the house and fiesty Abi was able to escape her pushchair and sadly was never seen again. Existing in a world without Abi, Ava can’t cope. She is in pain next to her husband, Matt, and their small baby Fred. Ava eventually decides to attend the housewarming of her neighbours new house extension and a comment throws Ava into another world of pain and heartache where not all is as it seems.
This book was brilliant. Susie’s characters are always packed with emotion and the stories leave me pondering them for days and this is another one that will do that. Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

Not the thriller I was expecting but a good drama with well developed characters. Depicting the guilt and profound grief of loosing a child and its effect on both family and friends, it made for a heartwrenching story. I found the beginning a bit confusing and repetitive. The story definitely picked up in the second half as secrets are revealed after the housewarming. A twist I saw coming and one I definitely did not made for a good read.

Thank you Netgalley and Bookouture for this ARC.

I haven’t been so heartbroken for so long. This book truly made me sad. It’s a depressing, dark drama about guilt, feeling deeply miserable, helpless after losing your loved one. Of course there is still intriguing mystery keeps your toes but I have to warn you this book should be defined as women’s fiction/ psychological mystery and drama. It’s not the regular, fast pacing thriller!

The story develops slowly. You witness Ava’s heartbreaking story about losing her two years old daughter. You hear her guilt, her self destruction, her nonstop questioning about what she’d done wrong!

Personally I love more exciting, gripping, twisty thrillers and this one was a little slow burn for my own taste. It still kept my attention intact with great characteristic analysis of people who are or may be involved into little girl’s disappearance.

Let’s check more about story’s processing:
Ava just left her daughter Abi in the push-chair for only 5 minutes. Her belt is secure and tight. They have been living in a safe neighborhood. What could go wrong? So she goes to upstairs and when she comes back she realizes her daughter is already gone and the door is wide open. Did she pass Lovegood’s house?

Throughout her searching to her daughter and grieving process, nobody in her neighborhood shared her pain and help her to find her daughter.

Now the same place her daughter got missing, Lovegood family (interesting name choice) throws a housewarming party where Ava’s husband encourages her to join.

And finally Ava does what he says and returns back to the place where her most traumatic experience happened.

Everything seems fine at first. People are friendly, talkative and suddenly one of them blurted out a sentence which shouldn’t be told. Yes, it’s about Ava’s daughter. Somebody knows additional information about her disappearance and hiding from her which will push Ava dig out more to learn the truth.

Ending of the story is foreseeable but it was honest, sad, tear jerking, emotional story about loving your child, processing your grief, facing your guilts.

It’s not what I expected but it was still meaningful and well-written. I’m giving 3.5 stars and rounding them up to 4 slow burn, teary, poignant, motherhood stars!

Special thanks to NetGalley and Bookoture for sharing this digital copy of this powerful book with me in exchange my honest thoughts.

This is my first book by S.E. Lynes but it won’t be my last. Wow. The tension in this book starts from the first chapter and never lets up. Whether you are a parent or not, the fear and panic described when Ava’s two-year-old daughter goes missing is palpable. Each chapter reveals more pieces of the puzzle, with surprise twists and turns, making for a thrilling and interesting read. This was a book I didn’t want to put down. Well done!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for providing me with the opportunity to read and review this book.

Every parent's worst nightmare comes true for Ava and Matt, this story was gripping and brilliantly written and captured all the emotions that you expect but never want to experience first hand. This is my third time reading one of Susie's books and it is every bit as good as the others. I got this as an arc and would like to thank Bookouture and Netgalley for letting me have it to read. The opinions expressed are entirely my own views and are completely unbiased.

Ava is completely and utterly devastated when her 2 yr old daughter Abi goes missing. It happened a year ago but as we read, it feels like today as Ava plays the gut wrenching details over and over every day. All day. All night. Time stands still and the grief is engrained and excruciating. I’ve read many missing/kidnapped kids novels this year but none can touch the way the author writes Ava’s agony and pain so deeply that it elicits a visceral reaction from the reader. Told in the past and present, which seem to merge for Ava and me, it’s a powerful story of love and betrayal, grief and guilt, consequences and circumstance. Brilliant Writing and the last third develops into a heart stopping thriller.. highly recommended.

I honestly do not know where this writer gets all her ideas from that makes all her books so brilliant and compelling. Her name conjures up roller coaster rides, mixed emotions and a lingering sense of loss when you come to the end of the book. This latest story had me in floods of tears and I thought that I would have trouble reaching the end as the story was so depressing, upsetting and traumatic, which shows how good this writer is. to be able to make me feel this way. I feel empty now. I have reached the end and cannot wait for the next book. Thanks to Netgalley, Bookouture and most of all the author for giving me the opportunity to read this amazing book.

Such a fabulous book! I started reading it and had finished it within a day. The story line is so seamless and it just flows without any abrupt breaks. The ending was so true and it hit a nerve especially during this time in our lives. Abi goes missing and all the relationships are tested to the max. Excellent book!

The Housewarming by S.E. Lynes had me feeling very emotional as I was hoping Abi would be found. The book is a mystery that features every parent's nightmare, a missing toddler! Also, as I read the story the depth of interactions among friends and neighbors uncovers layers of secrets and true emotions. This is not an action thriller, but more a study of how dramatically a family can be affected during a traumatic event and the fallout it leaves.
Ava is a good mother and happy to be pregnant with another baby. One morning she has her two-year-old in the stroller ready for a walk but Ava must run upstairs to get her cell phone. While she is upstairs, she is delayed in getting back to Abi. When she comes down the stairs, she sees Abi is missing from the stroller. This begins a frantic search by Ava as she desperately calls for her little girl. Soon she calls Matt, and he comes home and contacts the police for help.
I won't post spoilers, but Matt and Ava's distress is heartbreaking. The unknown fate of their child continues to wreck their lives. Months after the day Abi went missing, a neighbor holds a huge housewarming party to reveal the modern renovations to their house. Ava listens carefully to conversations as she watches her neighbors during the party. She picks up on some comments and actions which leave her with questions. As she is leaving the party, Matt's best friend Neil tells her a secret he has kept since the day Abi went missing. This information shatters Ava and makes her more determined to find out what happened to her daughter.
Publication Date: October 23, 2020
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Ava was upstairs for 5 minutes.
Maybe 10.
15 minutes tops.

Her two-year old daughter, Abi, was safely in her stroller downstairs. Since she wasn’t making a peep, she must’ve been content. Ava was glad to grab a few quiet minutes to “use the loo”, check her Facebook feed, breathe.

When she came downstairs, the front door was open. She must’ve forgotten to close it. Abi was gone.

A year later, wrapped up in grief, Ava’s husband, Matt, suggests they go to their neighbors housewarming party. It’ll be the first time anyone has seen the inside, which was a total gut job and very pricey. Ava will find out something she never knew about the worst day of her life one year prior, which sets off a chain of events and speculation.

Potential reader, beware: This is not a thriller. It’s a drama (more than domestic) with mystery involved. Although the chapters from one year ago were a bit repetitive (searching high and low for Abi), the book really picked up in the present day. I enjoyed it, but wasn’t feeling blown away by what I was reading.

Then, a couple of well-timed and surprising twists that I never expected pushed the last 20% into high gear, and I really came to care about the characters and their situations.

3.5 stars rounded up. I’ve always enjoyed the work of S.E. Lynes (with the exception of her last novel). I also really enjoyed her note at the end, which discussed writing this during the times of COVID-19.

Thank you to Bookouture, S.E. Lynes, and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

My stomach is in knots!

When I pick up a novel by SE Lynes, I have come to expect that I am going to get great writing, fantastic characters and a compelling and thought-provoking plot. The Housewarming knocks it out of the park on all three counts.

From the first chapter when Ava is looking for her daughter, my stomach started to tighten. What mother hasn’t experienced a moment of panic when their child has wandered out of sight? Lynes writes that initial panic and its transition into bone-chilling fear with a masterly command of pace. As the novel progresses, and details are revealed, the tension doesn’t let up for a second. If I’d had the time to read it in one sitting, I wouldn’t have put it down until the last word.

Lynes’ writing is – as always – a joy to read. The way she manipulates the reader’s perception of characters and situations is extremely clever and her prose is both beautiful and accessible.
This is a novel that will stay with you long after you have finished reading. For me, the most haunting part was that it is sometimes the things we take for granted that are most important. I’ll certainly be holding my children close tonight.

The Housewarming is about a young mother, Ava, whose two-year old daughter, Abi, goes missing one morning. One year later, Ava and her family are barely hanging on when events start to happen which may finally lead Ava to find out what happened to her daughter that fateful day.

This is a fast-paced, well-written, gripping and intense story that kept me turning the pages! I found the interweaving of the present and past in the chapters describing Ava’s emotions a year after Abi’s disappearance very effective and further drew me into the story. While I knew a key part of the ending before it happened, there was also a twist that I did not see coming. The characters were neither black nor white which made them very believable and fascinating. The key message of the book - as explained by Ava - that looking after each other - family, friends and those around us - is all that any of us truly has - really resonated with me. I will definitely be reading other works by this author. Highly recommend this read!

Thanks to @Bookouture for providing me with an arc of this book via @Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

Ava & Matt are devastated when their two year old daughter, Abi, goes missing. Ava blames herself for leaving the door open and now lives a life of gut wrenching guilt from which she can see no way out. The story switches between the time of Abi’s disappearance and a year after. The book is written from the POV of Ava & Matt, where we witness the heartbreak that haunts them both as they desperately try to move on with their lives, especially now they have a new-born son, Fred. When an invite to their neighbours housewarming party arrives, Matt is keen for them to go in an effort to ease Ava back into the world around her. After much discussion, they both go to the party where a throw away line in a conversation puts her on edge and she begins to doubt those around her and their involvement in Abi’s disappearance.

I felt the first half of the book, leading up to the party was quite slow although it was well written and gave the reader a really good feel for how Ava & Matt were feeling. The obvious turning point was the party, hence the book title. From that point the storyline raced towards a thrilling outcome, with a few twists along the way. This is the first of this authors books I’ve read but I’ll be looking out for more in the future.

Many thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley UK for the free review copy in exchange for an honest review.