For most people, running into their childhood nanny or babysitter would be a happy occasion. In Nanny Dearest, Sue doesn’t remember the woman claiming to be her nanny at all, but Annie knows many details of Sue’s childhood. They become close again just like when Sue was little. But almost too close?

The story is told in two time periods and two POVs. Annie’s in the 90s and Sue’s in present day. Both are unreliable narrators, both struggling with some mental health issues like depression. As Sue gets to know Annie more, things come out about her childhood that were deeply buried and she begins to remember some not so rosy memories. Annie is currently taking care of her niece and nephew and Sue grows concerned for them just like when she was a child.

I like the plot of this book, but it was a little confusing with the jumping back and forth. It also almost seemed like Sue and Annie were going to get romantic which would be so creepy, but the author veers off at the last minute. I do think she handled grief very well as that is a large part of the story. Sue’s mother passes when she was very young and Annie helps take care of her during the time.

Overall, I think this was a very good debut novel and I’m looking forward to more! Thank you so much @_mira_books_ @htpbooks and @floracollins_author for the gifted ebook. Nanny Dearest is on sale now!

This book….oh boy this book. This was probably a case of “it’s not you, it’s me” (I had a couple of those this year unfortunately).

So let me just say this: this book was intriguing, creepy, well-written, and definitely had me turning the pages. It wasn’t a bad book by any means - there is definitely an audience for this type of book.

The reason I gave it 3 stars is because I am just not the right audience for this book right now. I personally found it to be pretty disturbing and unnecessarily graphic in places. I actually almost DNF’ed this one pretty early on. I’m glad I didn’t - the overall story was good. I’m just not sure I’m the right reader for this author’s style.

If you are looking for a dark, strange read that will put you right into the minds of two very disturbed and mentally unstable individuals, this is definitely the book for you. Yowzers.

In Flora Collins’s Nanny Dearest, this adult domestic suspense is riveting, dark and twisted with every turned page. Susanna Keller’s life have been turned upside-down when her father died a year ago. At a chance encounter, she’s reunited with Annaliese “Annie” Whittaker, her former nanny she had when she was three years old. This reunion had brought back memories of her past and her turbulent childhood when she lost her mother from cancer. From Annie’s POV told in the 1990s from flashback, it all started from a simple job for her to take care of Suzy and the household, Suzy’s father was too busy with work and her mother didn’t pay close attention to her only daughter. She clapped her eyes on Suzy and prepared to insinuate into the family further. When Suzy mentions this to her friend Beth, she becomes leery and suspicious of her. The more she felt better about her life from quitting her job to alienating herself from her friends, she’s been sucked into Annie’s warped life like a cult survivor, believe everything she said was the truth about her childhood and her parents. Then she becomes suspicious of her and her actions, playing everyone like a fool, until she discovered the truth and prepared to confront her dead on. Though she denied it, Annie wanted Suzy for herself, driving a wedge into her life, wanting to make her for her own. With every little discovery she uncovered, she distanced herself from Annie and broken free from her hold until they had a final confrontation at her former home, which would blow you away.

This was a dark domestic suspense that’s captivating and gives you chills all over. I cared for Suzy on how she lost both her parents and had her friends to lean on, until Annie resurfaced into her life like a deadweight dummy. Besides dealing with her grief, she was a sucker and a true believer on Annie’s lies about the past and how she destroyed her family. I loved how she stood up to her in the end. Annie, I had l liked in the beginning, but then I became suspicious of her and her motives, especially with her own niece and nephew. I loved the New York City area for the central location which had fantastic scenic settings, past and present. The theme of the story is that don’t lie on who you are, or it would sneak up on you.

I loved how it dealt with grief and possibly mental health, which does hit close to home. It also showed the perception of how people view you and how you view others in the same light. It gave me goosebumps and chills all over. My only nitpick was that we didn’t know Suzy’s parents first names until it was mentioned later in the story, when it should’ve been introduced in the first flashback. And African-American and Black are technically the same thing, when African-American should be the correct form to describe brown-skinned people. I rate this book, four out of five stars, because there were some thing I didn’t like what Annie did in Suzy’s life. This is recommended to everyone who loves to read domestic suspense and thriller novels.

Told in two different timelines, 1996 and the present, this psychological thriller was a bit slow-moving, but did get better. Annaliese is a young broken teenager who takes care of young Suzy Keller - this is the 1996 timeline. Fast forward to the present. Sue Keller is now a twenty-something young woman who is lost and broken. She's recently lost her father, and her mother has been gone for a long time. Suddenly, Sue meets Annie. Annie, aka Annaliese, is so loving and has so many stories that she can share with Sue about her younger years with Sue's family. Sue is craving the love and attention that her former nanny is so willingly offering. So she enters into a friendship with many suspenseful twists and turns leaving you to wonder who Annie really is.

In her debut novel, Nanny Dearest, author Flora Collins tells the story of a relationship of a babysitter and her old charge. This story dives into the minds of two very different women with a unique connection that transcends time and will have you wondering just what kind of experiences shape a person.

As many of you know, I usually never read thrillers… (What can I say: I’m a scaredy cat who likes romcoms better I’m sorry!) However, when I was put into contact with Flora by a friend about reading her debut novel, I knew I had to check this book out! And I was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed this book! The plot is so engaging and the alternating POVs and times makes this story even more enthralling! These characters are all super complex and trying to figure out the depths of Sue and Annie’s relationship is riveting as a reader!

So take it from a non-thriller reader that this book should definitely be added to your TBR this holiday season! I will definitely be on the look out for more of Collins’s novels in the future.

*I received an ARC from the author and MIRA Books in exchange for my honest opinion.

I'm having trouble putting into words what I thought about this book. Because the thing is, it's a really slow burn, so while not a lot is really happening at first, Collins does an amazing job of writing where you feel this creepy tension in the air the ENTIRE TIME. Like you just know something is up, but what is "up"?! I had goosebumps so often while reading even when I was thinking "but nothing has happened yet really...".

So our main character Sue, is mid-20ish and one day she runs into her old childhood nanny, Annie. Sue's parents have both died and Sue is feeling incredibly lost and misunderstood, so when Annie sweeps in and provides not only friendship but almost a motherly figure for Sue, Sue is determined to keep Annie in her life again. Told in alternating stories between present day (Sue) and the past (Annie), the whole thing is strange, but understandable given the circumstances. But then secrets start to unfold and Sue learns of things from her childhood that she didn't remember and this physiological thriller kept me turning pages right up until the crazy ending!

Suspenseful story with a great premise. I did however not much care for any of the characters and at times got a little confused with the dual time line, Still an enjoyable read with a writing style I liked. Thank you netgalley and publisher for this arc in exchange of an honest review.

Thank you Netgalley & Halequin Trade Publishing for an eARC of Nanny Dearest!

I absolutely love the concept of this book, and the dual timelines are enjoyable - mid 90s and present day. That being said, I got confused at times. I was hoping for a surprise to grab me, but overall an enjoyable read and I look forward to seeing what this author comes up with next.

Susanna Keller is all alone -- her mother died when she was a toddler, and her father has just passed away as well. She has no friends minus Beth who annoys her as much as she loves her, having driven them all away, and she looks in the mirror and doesn't recognize herself. Who is that woman? Is that me? Then, Sue randomly runs into Annie, who just happens to have been her nanny when she was a toddler -- while her mother was sick, and she lived in upstate New York. Alone and adrift, Sue clings to Annie -- practically living at Annie's sister's home where Annie takes care of her sister's two children. In Sue's eyes, Annie is a saint with a calm demeanor who is the maternal figure Sue has been yearning for all her life. But is Annie all she seems? Sue's memories seem to be different than Annie's and not everything is as it seems.

Honestly, I wasn't sure if I liked or hated this book. None of the characters are particularly likeable, and almost all of them need psychiatric help. The ending was very unresolved for me, and SPOILER ahead how did Sue's dad find Annie and Sue? It's never stated in the book.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. For some reason I just couldn't get into this book. It seemed a bit depressing, and I had a hard time connecting with the characters. I did enjoy the dual narratives, I felt that it was done really well, and I was able to kept track of everything.

This one is very dark. You jump between timelines and neither is cheery. It was a miss for me. I just didn't connect with the characters and there was almost too much past trauma in the plot to keep track of.

Disappointed with this novel. Although it was generally well paced between the two time periods, and had a couple of twists that kept the storyline somewhat different to its counterparts in the “Nanny” sub-genre (that seems to be quite full). I wouldn’t rush to recommend Nanny Dearest. I kept waiting for the plot line to significantly improve- which it failed to do. I also hate when animal abuse is written about; especially when it is descriptive and is unnecessary to the overall plot line (which is almost every time..). I would be open to the author’s future books as this was her debut.
Thank you HARLEQUIN – Trade Publishing (U.S. & Canada) and NetGalley for the chance to read this ARC!

TW//CW abuse, animal abuse, childe abuse, death, depression, disturbing, drug abuse, domestic abuse, gory, illness, mental illness, murder

A 2.5 stars read.

She knows silence can be better than words, that it can fill people up with just the right amount of presumptions.

This one is a slow-burn psychological thriller.
Okay let's start with all the things that bothering me, it's kinda too slow for me, the suspense happened after 68%, only to be dissapointed by the ending. Actually from the blurb and the back and forth from the past to the present I know where this is all going, so the waiting for something to happen is kinda irritating. Not a fan of all the characters, it's all toxic relationships, I understand why they did what they did though, they're all just victims from the abuse and depression, I did want to root for Suze but because of the dragging in the middle I just stop caring and again in the end I just like "what? that's it? why?".

Aside from all of that, there are things I like. The detail of the abuse, depression and mental illness is really distrubing and gory. It makes it feels so real and makes the story more intense. It's pretty terrifying what people with depression and a victim of abuse feelings in day to day life.

Overall it's an okay read for me.

I am kind of on the fence with this one. Though the whole premise of a "bad" nanny has been done many times, I liked Flora Collins interpretation. The characters were interested and definitely cringeworthy. I wish that there had been a little bit more to this, like another plot twist. I did not like how nothing was how it seemed from the nanny's interpretation at the beginning. I think that her character could have been even more extreme and that would've made it even better.

Nanny Dearest by Flora Collins is a thriller novel. The story in this book is told by alternating the point of view between two of the characters and also in a dual timeline format with one character in the present day and the other in the past.

Sue Keller lost her mother at an early age and was raised by her single father. Now that Sue is in her twenties though she has become an orphan with her father also now having passed away. One day Sue runs into a woman who seems to know her and claims to have once been her nanny. Sue has vague memories of Annie from her childhood and decides that it wouldn’t hurt to get to know her better now.

For me reading Nanny Dearest by Flora Collins was entertaining but I found one thing to bring my rating down to three and a half stars and that was I felt I knew what was coming the entire time. Perhaps it’s just me again but in the end I didn’t find anything that surprised me to really think of it as suspenseful. The story did flow well and engage me though as I read so I did enjoy it overall but just wished for more surprise.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

Oh man, I wish I had really good things to say about Nanny Dearest, but aside from the superb writing, this one was a flop for me. I wasn't enamored with any characters, the real drama didn't start until the very end, and the ending left me feeling like, huh, what was the point of the story if it was just to take us back to square one? The plot isn't unique and while Collins can write beautiful, detailed descriptions and believable dialogue, there wasn't anything special to this one.

I think others might enjoy this, but I didn't.

This was a suspenseful and somewhat twisted read (and actually the second "nanny" book I read this month!). If you enjoy slightly unnerving suspense, don't miss this one! Thank you for making me part of the tour and for my copy!

All the crazy and unlikeable characters you could ever want here! This was a solid debut thriller from Flora Collins and I definitely plan on picking up more from her in the future. Lots of crazy and lots of suspense and it was a lot of fun but sometimes confusing. Would you reconnect with your old nanny? Grief brings Sue Keller back into the arms of her childhood nanny, Annie. As Sue begins to learn more about Annie’s time with her family she slowly realizes things might not have ended mutually between her and the Kellers. I’ve seen rave reviews for this so I think some of the confusion I experienced was more so me than the writing because I’m in the minority here. Overall, I couldn’t put it down once I started and I’ll be keeping an eye out for future releases to see where her next thriller will take us!

Nanny Dearest by Flora Collins focuses on two characters, two time periods, and two narrators. With Annie's perspective on the past, I don't feel that I get to know or care for Suzy the child. As such, Sue's perspective in the present seems to lack that connection of why. With the whys unanswered, Sue does not develop into an empathetic character, and this makes the entire story a challenge.

Read my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2021/12/nanny-dearest.html

Reviewed for NetGalley and the HTP Fall 2021 mystery and thriller blog tour free of cost in exchange for an honest review.

After her father’s death, Sue Keller is devastated. She lost her mother at a young age and now she has no one. Then, she meets up with Annie…her live in nanny from her childhood. It’s been twenty years since they’ve seen each other, but they are able to reconnect once again. Annie quickly becomes the only one in Sue’s life as she pushes away even her closest of friends.

Sue begins to realize that something isn’t right with Annie. As she starts looking into her family’s past, she finds there’s more to Annie than meets the eye.

For me, the book started off slowly, but then began to pick up speed about halfway through the book. The characters are quite intriguing. Annie is a very complex character both in her younger days and her older days. Sue is as well, but she was a bit too naive and trusting as an adult. I attributed much of Sue’s actions towards grief and confusion.

I do have to add a warning, however, there is a scene of animal abuse which is a personal turn off for me. I had difficulty with that part.

It’s told in alternating viewpoints - one is set in the 1990’s and one in present day. I do like this technique as you find out different pieces of information throughout the story.

It’s a very dark, intense story. It’s one of those books you find yourself wanting to see how it ends which makes it difficult to put it down. A twisty, psychological thriller is the way I would describe it. It's the type of book that keeps you on your toes until the very end.





FTC Disclosure: I voluntarily reviewed a free Advance Reader Copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are my own.