The writing in this remarkable, surprising novel was brilliant, but the end was abrupt and disappointing, which cost it a star.

This is a fascinating look at an average, dull, upper-middle-class couple who have twin toddlers and hire a young immigrant nanny and proceed to slowly develop a romantic relationship with her, mostly having her watch them make love, occasionally involving her in their lovemaking. This gives their own staid relationship lots of new heat. The couple helps with the nanny's immigration status and compensate her very well, even supporting her in getting her college degree, making the question of whether she is being exploited a slippery one. However, they also behave in appalling manipulative ways, paying off the one boyfriend the nanny has to get him to disappear, leaving the nanny heartbroken and more reliant on them than she otherwise would have been.

Look at Us is Toma's second novel; his first, Border Dance, was published 25 years ago. This new offering features Martin Fowler, a mathematical physicist turned analyst who tracks foreign currencies. His wife, Lily, is an intellectual property lawyer. They make a lot of money, enough for Caribbean vacations and full-time child care of their young twin boys. Their first nanny is an older women their boys loved and whom they feel is an essential part of their family--until she tries to come back after they have already begun their unusual arrangement with Maeve, at which point their actual lack of feeling toward the first nanny becomes evident. In this and many other telling scenes, we see that Martin and Lily are morally bankrupt, acting only in their immediate self interests.

This is a slippery, hypnotic and aggravating book. It is beautifully written (e.g., Martin's fraught relationships with women "continue to rise in his memory like lit obelisks at night.") And it presents the unusual events taking place without obvious moral judgment, ostensibly leaving us to interpret whether the Fowlers are exploiting the young Irish nanny, Maeve.

In the end (and stop here if you don't want any spoilers):

when Maeve is unfairly accused of a theft she did not commit and yells at the couple, we feel the truth and force of her words as an indictment of the relationship we were lulled into thinking might be OK for everyone. Once she has spoken her truth about the couple, we the reader are embarrassed we ever saw them any other way.

New York Times reviewer Lydia Kiesling wrote: "Although we are given little sense of Maeve's reality or her motivations for joining this menage a trois, the novel overall is frank and unflinching about desire, sexual dysfunction and the gulfs that can separate even the most intimate of partners."

I am grateful to Bellevue Press and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to listen to this audio book in exchange for my honest review. I might never have found this novel without this giveaway, so I'm grateful for it.

2.5 stars
In the story Look At Us T. L. Tina we get to know a young wealthy couple that somehow ran out of steam. This changes when they hire an Au Pair for their twins. To be honest I could not really get into this story and I found myself not really caring. For me this is not a joined work but rather annectodes combined in one book.
The narration was fine for me but it could not make up to the plot.
Thanks #NetGalley #HighBridge Audio for an advanced copy

I hated this. The narrator was bad, the writing was boring. I couldn't really get into it all. I wish I could take that time back that I spent listening.

Wasn't really for me as its not my normal genre but thought I would try something different. Found the narrator quite monotonous and found myself drifting off and thinking about other things and therefore found that the book didn't really grip me. Sorry

So I enjoyed the first third of this book, even if it was heavy on exposition, and then I got to the part where they let the nanny watch them and . . . no. Nope.

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I just listened to two hours of this book on my walk. I couldn't wait to get home so I could download another book. Those are two hours I will never get back. The author does his/her best to impress the reader with his/her fancy vocabulary and descriptive images, especially of the character's sex life.. So where's the beef? In other words, where's the story?

I absolutely love psychology and books that dive deep into family drama. What went wrong? When? And why are some families able to weather the storm while other are sadly torn apart?

Look At Us by T. L. Tina explores the marriage of a young, wealthy couple who’s dismal sexual relationship is given an unexpected boosted when the new Au Pair moves in. Although it’s well written and intriguing, readers are sure to find the constant and lengthy anecdotes distracting. Regrettably, the prophetic ending feels disjointed and the overall message falls flat.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ Three stars for this well written but confusing look at marriage, sexuality, and masculinity with an R rating for mature subject matter and sexual content.