If there’s one thing that Susie Lynes does really well, it’s domestic noir, and with her latest offering, The Housewarming, she just proves that she’s getting better and better at it!

The morning that Ava Atkins straps two-year-old Abi into her stroller, parking her at the bottom of the stairs before running upstairs to gather up some laundry, starts as mundanely as any other. As Ava hurriedly goes about her business, she listens out to hear if Abi is starting to fuss, and not hearing anything, decides to take a quick loo break (which mom doesn’t understand the utter relief of an undisturbed wee when there’s a busy toddler in the house?), during which she may have snuck a quick look at Facebook on her phone because … well, who doesn’t? She then dashes downstairs and to her horror, discovers that the stroller is empty! Abi is nowhere to be seen and worst of all: the front door is open!

How is this even possible? She couldn’t have been upstairs for more than 5 or 10 minutes (maybe 15 at the most), and anyway, Abi doesn’t even know how to unstrap herself from her stroller, does she? And Ava is absolutely sure she’d locked the front door as she always does, or actually … had she done it before rushing upstairs for that laundry? She remembers being a bit distracted, so did she lock the door before heading up those stairs? Or did her husband Matt lock it? Wasn’t he supposed to do that? These are the the thoughts that repeatedly haunt Ava throughout that day as the search for little Abi begins. They’re to become like a mantra to her, drumming through her head throughout the 12 months that follow, because Abi has disappeared into thin air!

A year later, wealthy neighbours The Lovegoods, invite everyone in the street to their housewarming party. Their lengthy renovation is finally finished and they want to welcome everyone to their brand spanking new, sparkly home, now that it’s finally complete (and because they’re a bit showy offy)! Ava is adamant that she isn’t going to the party. Firstly because she still cannot bring herself to be anywhere close to anything considered celebratory, and secondly because she doesn’t want to be with all the people who live in such close proximity to her and who have been witness to her tragedy and continued misery.

Matt however, is convinced that getting out to a gathering with people who know and understand her will be a ‘soft landing’ as a first social outing, and talks her into going. He tells her that they won’t have to stay long. And so … off they go. And of course, it’s at this party where Ava overhears a throwaway remark that brinks the entire previous 12 months into sharp focus and she realises that the people closest to her are the exact ones she should be with if she wants to find out what happened to Abi.

Oh my word! I couldn’t put this down. It’s gut-wrenching, heart-breaking and altogether quite devastating. How well do people really know the people who live around them? Do people look further than the facades that people display to discover what’s behind them, and why they feel they need to disguise who they are? This is a well constructed commentary on community and the shelters that groups create for themselves. We hope that we are settled in safe havens and that we have created comfort zones for ourselves and our families but what happens when those foundations we hope we’ve established are shaken?

This is a 5 star read that I highly recommend. It’s a slow burner that I wouldn’t describe as a thriller as such, but probably more in the suspense category.

Such a sad book but what else could the subject matter be? It really is a clever very well crafted story and one that makes you question what you might have done in similar circumstances.
I would have given four and a half stars if I could because my only small complaint is that I felt there was some slowing of the pace in places but this is a book I highly recommend. This is the second book by SE Lynes I have read and I will look out for her work in the future as she is such an intelligent author.

Toddler Abi is missing from her house. Where is she? Did she wander off? Did someone take her? A year later and Abi’s mother, Ava, can’t move on. Needs to know what happened to her baby girl.

The next door neighbor, The Lovegoods, have remodeled their home and are having a huge housewarming party. Ava’s husband, Matt, has convinced her to go and afterwards has Ava questioning events surrounding Abi’s disappearance. This book really accelerates towards the last quarter of the book with twists and turns that made my eyes go wide and say....”OMG! What?”

S.E. Lynes is a new author to me and I’m definitely interested in reading more of her books! I’m really enjoying quick psychological suspense books right now. Thank you Netgalley, Bookouture and S.E. Lynes for a digital ARC of The Housewarming in exchange for an honest review. #TheHousewarming #NetGalley

Complex and complicated story of a child who goes missing and how the mother coped in the aftermath. No happy ending but a resolution. A difficult read.

Thank you so much for access to this ARC!

I cannot imagine what this poor mother has been through and honestly how she continues to move forward each day. However, I found this book to be very repetitive, so much so that it lost my interest. I also did find it hard to understand what was past and what was current.

I will continue to be a SE Lynes fan and look forward to loving the next book!

A fantastic read. A missing child. A little girl who disappears without a single sighting or clue what happened. Her devastated parents have no closure. A story of guilt, secrets, lies and love. Absolutely gripping with the most stunning conclusion that has you still thinking about the story long after you have finished.

So heartbreaking! The Housewarming cleverly portrays a mother's worst nightmare and had me sit up late into the night to finish the book.

Ava is still grieving the disappearance of her daughter, Abi, a year ago. Attending the neighbor's housewarming party is the last thing she wants to do, but she still goes heeding, the advice of her husband and her friends. But at the party, she learns the one tiny detail that changes everything she thought she knew about Abi's disappearance. Who can you trust?

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the arc.

Housewarming by S.E Lynes is a psychological thriller that definitely pulled on my heartstrings a few times. The author brings us a parents worst nightmare, a missing child.Her writing is so superb, I felt like I was living through this horrific event with her parents.
Ava and Matt's two year old daughter, Abi vanished from her pushchair one morning. Ava had left her for five minutes, when she returned the door was open and Abi had gone.
One year on and they are invited to a housewarming party for a neighbour, Abi is reluctant to go, still struggling with Abi's disappearance, she can hardly deal with the socialising. These people helped to look for Abi and she is paranoid about everything surrounding Abi's disappearance. Matt convinces her to attend with him. As the party undergoes the tension is palpable then, a chance remark makes Ava rerun everything she knows and doesn't know about her daughter going missing.
I cannot state enough how the emotions play such a large part in this book! From a parents perspective I was put the the wringer while reading this.The book really speeds up with the pace at the party and never lets up. All the secrets and every little confession begin to bubble to the surface and eventually the truth comes to light...make sure you have tissues at hand. Just when you think its over and all is done, in comes another twist to shock you again.
Another fabulous addition to S.E Lynes spectacular books! Thank you to Bookouture and NetGalley for the book in order to write my review.

Absolutely heartbreaking story. Ava and Matt’s 2 year old daughter went missing almost a year ago, and apart from her coat being found in the river nothing else has been found. Is she alive or dead?

It’s hard to imagine the panic Ava must have felt when she realised her daughter was missing but Ms Lynes perfectly conveys all the emotions and makes the reader feel them too. The book goes backwards and forwards from the present day to the day Abi went missing and the police investigation.. The story moves fairly slowly at first but the author does an amazing job building up the tension, and my mind was racing trying to work out what had happened to little Ava. The characters are all believable and my heart broke for Ava, and for Matt too.. When we finally find out the truth I was shocked and heartbroken.. This book will certainly stay with me.

Well blow me down with a feather….

This was not what I expected one iota. The author has managed to put her finger right on the pulse of a mother’s guilt and squeeze every gut wrenching emotion out until all that is left is a dry husk. So realistically written if you have small children you will go and check your own door and probably more than once.

This is a slow burning book often repeating the moments that lead to Abi going missing, the sitting on the toilet scrolling through Facebook is one that will resonate with a lot of mother’s who just want five minutes peace. The self imposed blame, questioning of her every action and the guilt is so rawly encapsulated it hits you in all the feels.

Told in first person by Ava and third person by her husband Matt, you see how both as parents react so differently. Ava refusing to see anyone, barely maintaining hygiene and depression gripping her while Matt is trying to hold strong, working and keeping social contact.

Then the party and this is where you need to pay special attention, the blurb mentions a throw away comment, there are a few so you need to work out which one is pertinent. I had an idea but I was desperately hoping I was wrong and I will leave it at that so you are intrigued enough to go and read it yourself…..

EXCERPT: Ava

When I think about that morning, it is beat by beat, like a heart - my own heart, my daughter's, at the time so enmeshed it seemed she was part of me: my body, my tissue, my bones. She is part of me. She will always be part of me.

When I think about that morning, I watch myself, over and over, as if from above. I watch myself like you watch your children in a school play or a sports match, silently willing them to succeed, to shine, to not get hurt. I watch myself bleeding on the sidelines of slowly unfolding disaster, alive with the pain I know is coming but she, the me of that moment, does not.

I do this every minute of every hour of every day. And I have done this for almost a year.

I watch myself: there I am, making my way downstairs with an armful of laundry. I can't see over the top. I take it slowly, both feet on one step before I lower myself to the next. Another step down, another. I am always so careful these days. I used to be carefree, but now I see danger everywhere: an electric socket is a hazard, a glass left too near the edge of a tabletop risky, a staircase perilous.

Another step. I call her name. Abi.

ABOUT THE HOUSEWARMING: Everyone is going to the housewarming party.
All the same people who lived on the street the day Abi vanished…
Will her mother finally learn the truth?

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 – she walked down the road, past the Lovegoods’ house, and was never seen again.

A year later, the Lovegoods throw a housewarming party, showing off the results of their renovation. Ava doesn’t want to go. She can’t bear to look down that end of the road, to see the place where Abi vanished, and she doesn’t want to spend time with people who don’t share her grief. Her husband Matt persuades her: he’s worried about her. A night out might do her good.

But as her friends and neighbours chat, and the drink and gossip flows, Ava learns something new about the day she has re-lived a thousand times. A throwaway comment which could change everything.

Ava thought she knew every last detail of that day.

She’s about to find out she was wrong…

MY THOUGHTS: The opening chapters left me stunned and breathless. And it didn't stop there. The pace is relentless. The tension palpable. As is the grief, the despair, the guilt. Lynes has written a blockbuster of human emotion that left me exhausted, drained, wrung out, and absolutely certain that this is the best book she has ever written!

The characters are superbly depicted. They are complete. They are you. They are me. They are our husbands and wives, our friends and neighbours. They gossip and assume. They are horrified, and smug. They have their own pristine lives that they don't want touched by tragedy. Ava becomes isolated, a prisoner of her anxiety and her feeling of being contagious in her unresolved guilt and grief.

Her neighbour Jen is the only person she feels any connection with. Jen, who never pressures her, who lets her just be. So when Jen throws a party to celebrate the end of the renovations on their house, Ava reluctantly agrees to attend, just for an hour. And there begins the unravelling of everything Ava thought she knew about Abi's disappearance.

Gripping. Heartwrenching. Devastating. Dark. The Housewarming lives up to every promotional promise.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

#TheHousewarming #NetGalley

'My eyes are incontinent.'

THE AUTHOR: After graduating from Leeds University, S E Lynes lived in London before moving to Aberdeen to be with her husband. In Aberdeen, she worked as a Radio Producer at the BBC before moving with her husband and two young children to Rome, where she lived for five years. There, she began to write while her children attended nursery. After the birth of her third child and upon her return to the UK, she gained an MA in Creative Writing from Kingston University. She combines writing with teaching at Richmond Adult Community College and bringing up her three children in Teddington, Middlesex.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Bookouture via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of The Housewarming by S.E. Lynes for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

For an explanation of my rating system please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com

This review and others are also published on Twitter, Amazon, Instagram and my webpage

This story was much slower than I expected it to be. I found the first half of the book quite repetitive and I struggled to keep going with it. The story picked up in the second half as secrets are revealed but I had already lost interest by then. Definitely a slow burner which some people will enjoy - but not for me I'm afraid!

Thank you to Netgalley, Bookouture and the author for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A heartbreaking mystery that will have you checking your front door, especially if you have young children.

Ava went upstairs for just a minute, or it could have been 5 ....... maybe 10 at a push ........ at the most 15 !! But when she came back downstairs the pushchair was empty and her you d daughter, Abi, was missing. The front door was open but Ava was sure she closed it, didn’t she ?

Ava searches everywhere - in the house, down the street, near the ducks ......... where can Abi have gone, she couldn’t have got far. But Abi is not found and Ava and her husband Matt must carry on as best they can.

Nearly a year after Abi’s disappearance there is still no answers and Ava is struggling to cope with life moving forwards. An invite arrives through the door. The neighbours are having a housewarming party. Can Ava face all her neighbours ? How will she cope with everyone knowing that Abi is missing after Ava left the door open ?

After some persuasion Ava and Matt attend the party but what they couldn’t have anticipated was the secrets it would unearth. Ava discovers a secret from the day Abi went missing and all of a sudden she starts to slowly put the pieces together. Will she finally discover what happened the day that Abi disappeared ?

This is a great domestic mystery that will have you trying to put the pieces together along with Ava. There are plenty of twists that will keep you guessing and questioning everyone’s version of that day. A great mystery but will you uncover the truth ?

Thank you to Bookouture and NetGalley for a digital copy of this book.

Ava is a busy mom on any ordinary day with a young toddler daughter. She is about to take her daughter to feed the ducks when she runs upstairs to do a few last minute things before they head off. Her daughter Abi was locked in her stroller so she’s perfectly safe. Right? When Ava comes downstairs a few minutes later, the door is open and Abi is gone. Never found. Ava is distraught and trying to cope with the help of her husband Matt. A year later their neighbors are having a housewarming party and since Ava has been a hermit since Abi’s disappearance, her husband thinks it’s a good thing for them to attend. But attending that party turns out to be a big mistake. It sets in motion so many things Ava thought she knew about the day her daughter disappeared. And now, Ava is ready for the truth. I thought this book moved kinda slowly at first but it picked up. If I’m honest though, I could see the twists coming a mile away. Does this mean this wasn’t a good book? No. It was really good, really sad. And it’s a lesson learned for all characters at the end.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! It was fast paced with an intense writing style! It keeps you reading as you need to find out the next secret and they just keep on coming! Twisty, shocking and a brilliant read 👏🏼 would definitely recommend!

Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free, electronic ARC of this novel received in exchange for an honest review.
Publication date: October 23, 2020
“Somewhere along the line, we’ve been so busy getting and having and getting more and more and more again until we have so much, we have to guard it at all costs. We’ve forgotten- we’ve completely forgotten- to look after each other”. One of the closing quotes of “The Housewarming” by S.E Lynes, and it is truer now than ever before.
Ava was preparing to take her daughter for a walk in her stroller, when she decided to check her phone. Her daughter was safely buckled in her stroller, so what was the harm, right? When Ava returns to her daughter, she realizes the stroller is empty, and the front door is open- Abi has disappeared. After a year of frantic searching and constant guilt, Ava and her husband Matt are invited to a housewarming party at their new neighbours’ house. Matt encourages Ava to go, desperate for her to get out of the house. However, at the party, shocking secrets are revealed that once again, bring Abi’s disappearance to light. Ava can trust no one but herself to find out the truth about her daughter, and she will continue searching no matter the cost.
S.E Lynes has written many top-selling, psychological suspense novels and I am ashamed to admit I have only read one other (“The Lies We Hide”). Her newest novel, “The Housewarming”, is emotionally-charged, gripping and full of suspense, a pulse-pounding who-dunnit from page one. Every character has a part to play in the disappearance of young Abi, and the horrible consequences of secrets kept comes to light.
I loved Lynes’ writing style, the alternating chapters told from Ava and Matt’s perspectives. Even as a non-parent, I immediately empathized with Ava’s intense loss and grief- no one but the best of writers can generate this type of connection with a character. As the story unfolded, I definitely began to form ideas as to what had happened (and it turns out I was right, although it played out a little differently than I predicted) but the ending was still powerful. Lynes’ turns Ava’s pain into a thought-provoking and heartbreaking look at today’s society, and what really matters.
Well-told, creative and emotional, “The Homecoming” checked off all my boxes. Although I saw the ending coming, I was so entertained throughout. It is a novel worth checking out, and I will be anxiously awaiting another novel by Lynes (and reading her previous novels while I wait!).

Ava and Matt are living every parent’s worst nightmare. You run upstairs to grab your phone before you leave the house. You know your child is safe because they’re buckled in their stroller and they can’t undo the latch. You take a minute to fold some sheets and scroll through Facebook- you finally have a minute to yourself and the baby is being quiet. And then... you go back downstairs and there is no baby in the stroller- and even worse... the door is wide open. Where is your baby? She couldn’t have gone far, could she have? Terrifying right? That is what happens to Ava, her daughter Abi is nowhere to be found. The story begins with Ava and her husband Matt frantically searching for their toddler Abi. Then the story jumps forward a year. Ava cannot let go of the guilt. How could she have left her little girl alone? How could she have not close the door? Why did she need to scroll through her phone? There was no body, there were no answers, there was no closure. Matt has finally talked Ava into going to the neighbors housewarming party and while there Ava overhears something that will change everything.

This was a slow burning emotional character driven thriller. This couples grief and guilt was dripping off the pages. The tension in the story was understated and the twists were quiet. I knew the truth was going to be sinister... but as things began to be revealed it was so much worse than I had anticipated. This was truly a heartbreaking tale about the lengths we go to protect ourselves and in doing so we hurt others.

This book in emojis 💔 🦥 🏡

*** Big thank you to Bookouture for my gifted copy of this book. All opinions are my own. ***

well, this was...not for me. I thought the writing was really mediocre, SO dang rambling!!! The story was very slow, sometimes the chapters just felt like a different version of the previous one. There was very little intrigue. I'd say the story truly started about 70 pages from the end. Now, I can appreciate having your characters grieve, but if you don't give the reader something else to keep the intrigue going then it's difficult to want to continue... especially when the writing is so all over the place and extremely repetitive! Every little subtlety was followed by a detailed explanation as if we could not understand what the implications were... The characters were lackluster versions of one dimensional personalities. The ending was pretty horrifying, but I was not impressed AT ALL. I was just finally glad it was over.

Something else that bothered me about this book: the main character's perspective is written in the 1st person, but any other perspective is written in the 3rd person. WHY ???

As a mother and parent I Can say that this book is definitely chilling.
I’ve read other books by the other and always enjoyed her writing style as well as the stories, but this one is different from her usual mystery crime ones.
It’s a domestic thriller that kept me up just to find out if my suspicions were proven or not and, because I read a lot of them, I was right. But that didn’t stop me from enjoying the heart pounding, twisted plot.
One of the biggest fear of any parent is to find out that their kids are gone missing and the finding them and accept that they are gone for good its terrifying and seems surreal.

Another great story from a now favourite author.

"I am a woman who has a daughter. I am a woman who had a daughter. Both these things are true. I live in the past; I survive in the present."

Ava only left Abi alone for a few moments. But that was all it took for the two-year-old to wander off and vanish. She didn't realise she'd left the front door open or that she could unbuckle herself from her pushchair. She didn't know she would never see her again.

A year later Ava is struggling to accept her daughter's death and to live with the guilt she carries. When their neighbours invite them to their housewarming party, her husband Matt convinces her to go, saying it is time they start to rebuild their lives. But that night Ava discovers something that changes everything she thought she knew about the day Abi disappeared and makes her look at those around her in a new light.

Could the truth about her daughter's disappearance actually be more sinister than she believed?

"Second by second. Beat by beat. A metronome keeps time for the frantic melody of my life's unravelling. I watch myself from above. I shout out the things I should have done, places I should have looked, the order in which I should have done it all."

This was one of those books that I knew you're going to love immediately. The author drew me in from the first pages with her melodic prose that oozes with panic, fear and despair as she recalls the moment she found Abi was missing and frantically searched for her. She looks back scathingly at the decisions she made and the mistakes she sees as costing her daughter's life.

After that night at the party, the tension rises as Ava notices the inconsistencies and begins to doubt the things she believed about Abi's disappearance. A cloud of suspicion now hangs over those she never suspected as small details begin to reveal a dark and horrifying picture. As I approached the jaw-dropping finale, my heart was in my throat and I got book whiplash from all the twists and turns.

"It is simply that the party has pulled the plug on the weird, stagnant pond of our lives, has drained the water from details half submerged, which lie now in the shallows, exposed."

Compelling, heartbreaking and harrowing, this was impossible to put down. Lynes is a master of stories that have you on the edge of your seat but also full of heart.

Don't miss this sensational thriller.