This book sounded very interesting, but did not live up to the expectations. The characters were basic and stereotypical. The dialogue seemed unnatural as well. The story did not hold my attention well and the twist toward the end was predictable. I listened to this one on audio and the narrator was awful. Her voices for the dialogue were the worst I have ever heard. Ever. Unfortunately I will not be able to recommend this one.

3.65⭐ rounded up.

Sweet, 70 year old, Iris is having trouble keeping up with her household chores. She meets Lydia at a diner and takes a liking to her, so she offers her a job and a place to live. Lydia accepts and brings along Seth to move in and help out too.

Told in the 'before' and 'after' as we follow Iris, Lydia and Maureen. I found this way easy to follow along with.

I thought Maureen was a top notch rookie cop and I really enjoyed her investigative skills. She didn't care that she skirted on the line when she was supposed to take a step back. Do we have a set up at the end for a series featuring Maureen? I wouldn't mind that at all.

Kristin James did a good job narrating for 8 hours and 35 minutes, easy to follow along at 2x. I even liked her male voices.

This is my first time reading/listening to Ellery's work and I would be happy to read more from her.

3.5 Stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture Audio for an ARC audio copy of The House Sitter in exchange for an honest review.

Iris Duncan has been living alone in her home for years since her husband passed away but with her memory rapidly declining and her fear that someone has been breaking into her home she no longer feels safe living there alone. She meets a down on her luck waitress, Lydia, who is kind to Iris. When Lydia is unfairly fired Iris convinces her, and her husband Seth, to move in with her to be her caretakers in exchange for her inheritance. One night Iris makes a call to 911 telling them that someone is in the house again. The 911 responder can hear gunshots go off but when the police arrive Iris is missing. Who are these two strangers living in Iris' house and more importantly what happened to Iris?

This is a good mystery with twist and changing subplots. None of the characters are as they appear and are hiding deep dark secrets but who will get the upper hand? The story is told from multiple perspectives to keep the reader guessing where it will go. I had the audio version read by Kristin James who was enjoyable to listen to with good pacing and inflections.

I somehow lost track of this amongst other audiobooks. I’m glad I found it, but wish I read it sooner! This was a great, quick read (listen) with characters you’ll love to hate and one who will make you think of your darling grandmother.


Thanks to #NetGalley and the publisher for early access to this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

Unfortunately this was a DNF for me. I was just bored. The characters were largely unlikable, and I didn't like Iris's voice in the narration at all.

Iris is a wealthy widow just shy of her 70th birthday. She lives all alone in the affluent Pacific Heights area of San Francisco. She worries excessively about intruders, so when she unexpectedly bonds with Lydia, a down on her luck pregnant waitress, she impulsively offers her (and her boyfriend) room and board in exchange for some help around the house.

Things seem to go really well for a couple of months, until Iris makes a frantic call to 911. The 911 operator hears a shot, and then the line goes dead. When the police show up, Iris has disappeared!

I really enjoyed this book. The dual timeline switches between “Before” and “After” the disappearance of Iris. The chapters are short and the action moves quickly. I liked the detective Maureen, and I would love to see more of her in another book! I wasn’t sure what to think of Lydia, but I did not care for her boyfriend, Sean. The ending has a few surprises and a twist! All and all, this was an enjoyable book!

I listened to this one as an audiobook. The narrator, Kristin James, did a great job with the voices. The action was easy to follow.

My thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for my audio copy in exchange for an honest review. My thoughts are my own.

I absolutely flew through The House Sitter in less than a day! It grabbed me right from the start and didn’t slow down! If you enjoy a good mystery that’s character driven and smart, this one is for you!
The narration alternates between Iris: an elderly women recently widowed and in need of assistance, with secrets of her own, Lydia: she and her partner Seth who are a down on their luck duo who may or may not be what they appear to be when they agree to become house sitters for Iris, and finally, Maureen: a previous professional pianist turned rookie cop due to her own tragic past. She is relentless in her quest to find Iris and the culprit who made her disappear. Each narration brings their own unique voice and moves the story along from past to preset. The time line and voices were interesting and easy to follow.

While I did figure out who was to blame for Iris’s disappearance and probable motive about three-quarters of the way through, There were still twists and turns that surprised me and left me feeling satisfied and felt like it was such a good ending! I really enjoyed this book and will absolutely return to this author in the future!!
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

The House Sitter was a great read by Ellery A. Kane. Iris knew right away when she saw Lydia, that she was exactly who she was looking for. She offered Lydia a job as her live-in helper. While Lydia works inside, her boyfriend Seth works outside. He works on the lawn and fixes the broken gate. Iris is always looking at their every move. One day, Iris seems very confused and thinks that Lydia and Seth moved in uninvited. Iris is given a medicine that will help her calm down. Later that night, the police turn up to the house. The house is turned upside down, the telephone on the floor and the cord severed. Although they called out for Iris, the house was completely silent. I absolutely loved reading this book and cant wait to read more by the author.

First of all, this book is mistitled, as it is not a book about a house sitter but rather a care giver. The farther into this book I got, the more annoyed I felt about this mistitling, since it seemed marketers must have felt "The House Sitter" would be an intriguing name, even though the story has *nothing* to do with house sitting.

Second of all, the narration of several characters was totally over the top: the villainous bad guys spoke in a cartoonishly threatening way; the "old lady" is only 70 years old but talks in a quavering, tremulous voice that would be more likely to come from a 90-year-old.

So here's the story: an old woman invites a sweet young waitress to be her caregiver and soon the young woman and her male partner have moved into the old woman's home, taken over her medication and her finances, and are written into her will as the sole beneficiaries of her considerable fortune. Are they conning her? Is only one of them conning her? Or is the old woman running a con of her own?

The narration was distractingly bad, which made it hard for me to get to the end of this audio book which was provided to me by Netgalley and the publisher for my honest review.

This was really good. Even though you clearly know "who has done it" you still sit on the edge of the sit. It was creepy and real and I liked the ending too. Its not something extraordinary, but it was written well.

This is a first time read for me by this author. I found this to be a suspenseful and engaging story that kept my interest all the through. The author did a nice job of bringing the story and characters to life. The characters were well-developed and realistic. The story was well-written and flowed at a steady pace. I liked how the author switched back and forth between Before and After, which really kept me on my toes and engaged. Both timelines blended well and kept the mystery going strong. I also enjoyed the build up and twists along the way. An intriguing mystery that definitely kept me guessing with a well crafted ending. I enjoyed this mystery and would definitely be interested in reading more books by this author in the future.
I received a complimentary copy from Bookouture via Netgalley and am voluntarily leaving my review.

Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture Audio. for the advanced copy of this audiobook.

I loved the premise of the book and following the sneakiness of each character. It didn’t play out like I thought it would, so it definitely was a surprise ending! An easy and enjoyable read.

Unfortunately this book just wasn't for me. I didn't like any of the characters, the plot was predictable and the title and blurb don't really match the actual story. It certainly wasn't what I was expecting and I just felt so disappointed. I was really hoping to get lost in a good thriller but that just didn't happen and it just felt very blah.

This book was intriguing but the characters were very unsavory. I enjoyed the twists and they were surprising for sure. I don't know how I feel about this author just yet

The House Sitter was so good! I listened to the audiobook version and the narrator, Kristin James, did a great job telling the story. The book kept me guessing until the end, with a twist that completely blew my mind, so if you’re looking for an awesome psychological thriller to read this summer, you’ve GOT to pick this one up!

Although the beginning of the book was a bit slow go for me, as the author introduced characters and begun to unveil their complexity, I got hooked and could not put the book down.

My favorites were Maureen and "Tallboy." They were not perfect and made plenty of questionable choices, but they were compassionate, inquisitive, likable and pursuers of the truth.

There are many twists in this book, and a few of them actualy surprised me.

Overall, this was a fun quick read and I cannot wait to see what new book might be written by this author.

** spoiler alert ** Damn, I love a good revenge book and this has it in spades, coming from a couple of different directions! I love it! It also has another of my favorites - a happy ending! I definitely love that Lydia gets a happy ending and I love the twists at the end! I will definitely be picking up more books by this author and recommending her to all my mystery-loving books friends!

#TheHouseSitter #NetGalley

The fast paced writing kept me interested throughout this book, so I would definitely recommend it to most people. However the ending wasnt greatly suprising and it wasn't memorable enough to give a higher rating.
I enjoyed the suspense throughout and I was interested in the characters as the story progressed.
I would be interested in reading future books by this author.

2.5 stars Just an average read for me. The audio narration was also average - a performance that will be easily forgotten in a few days.

The story jumped around a lot between past and present and character perspectives, which lessened the overall cohesiveness of the plot. I didn’t like the detective’s perspective much. And I found all of the characters bland and stereotypical. Some of the dialogue felt insincere and unbelievable. I tried hard to invest myself but just didn’t care much about any of the characters or what happened to them. They needed more depth and dimension.

The plot moved along at a gallop with many reveals along the way. It lacked that emotional component needed to draw me in fully. I needed more tension, suspense or something.

Although this book didn’t really work for me, there are some higher reviews by other readers so it’s probably worth reading and forming your own opinion. Thank you to Bookouture Audio and Netgalley for an advanced audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

THE HOUSE SITTER is one of the best mystery novels I've read. That might sound like I'm over selling it but damn was it good.

Plot wise, I really enjoyed the pace at which hints were dropped. One of my favorite things about mysteries is piecing together the clues as I read through and this one definitely afforded me that ability. There's a delicate balance to giving your reader clues and beating them over the head with them and for me, this was perfectly balanced. THOUGH that mid-story plot twist? Yeah. I didn't see that coming at all.

At around 75% I had a pretty good guess as to what had happened and why, but I was very happy about it. It was a perfect outcome in my opinion and I was glad to see it hit the page and the story go in the direction I wanted. That doesn't always happen with this kind of book.

I will admit, I was a bit skeptical about the last chapter, as far as like, where things ended up realistically, but I still think it was a good decision for the story.

I love Iris. She is a sweet bean and I want to protect her with everything I have. Also the female cop, (I can't think of her name at the moment) I really enjoyed learning about her character and I think she was put together fantastically well.

The house sitters themselves were god awful but learning their backstories and figuring them out was half of the fun of this book.

One thing to mention is this story is a dual time line and I love that. I can sometimes struggle with dual timelines (part of my neurodivergence is struggling to remember things in sequential order), but this one was done well. I was able to keep up with both time lines. I also liked how you'd learn something in one that would then play into the other and it would just open up the plot and moved things forward. It was just great. So if you like a dual timeline, check this one out.