"The Nursery" is not what you would expect. I anticipated the storyline being about a newborn or infant child but instead, it starts off with a mom and a teenage daughter. The fist half of the book introduces you to the current lives of the two, and the close friends involved with them. You will be told some backstory, but almost every chapter will leave you guessing what could possibly happen next. Although it seems as though the storyline and character development seems drawn out, it holds your attention and by the time you are into the last quarter of the book, it becomes suspenseful and twisted in ways you would never expect! Once you finally start realizing the significance of the "nursery", the story becomes heartbreaking but empathetic at the same time. I think the author's way of writing the story was extremely creative, and upon reading her personal experience on why she wrote it, it was definitely an enjoyable read.

Just when you think she can't top her last book, Watson comes back with The Nursery.

I didn't actually start reading it till this morning and I've flown through it.

Characters are credible, unbalanced and most definitely not what they seem. And just who is Pink Girl?

The Nursery is an unputdownable fast paced thriller, it's suspenseful, twisty and the ending was definitely a shock and a half!

Highly engaging and definitely an author to recommend.

Many thanks to Bookouture for my tour spot.

Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Talk about a shocker!

The Nursery is a captivating and shocking tale which kept me on my toes and doing my own detective work to try and figure out what would happen next. The book is about a single mother raising her daughter and becomes much, much more. Everything is not as it seems, and Sue Watson was able to pull the wool over this readers eyes.

Emily and her fifteen-year-old daughter, Sophia are living a normal life - if normal is keeping a low profile and hoping that no one finds out where you live. Emily is working in a perfume store and Sophia is attending school. One evening Emily notices someone across the street staring right at their home. This causes her alarm but not as much alarm as when someone enters house in the early hours and leave a note and "gift" behind. Naturally Emily is alarmed and is hypervigilant but doesn't want the police involved.

Making matters even more tense at home, Sophia has been talking to someone online who has been telling her not to trust her mother and other things about her mother's life. Tension mounts as Sophia cannot be found one day, and Sophia once home, seems to change overnight from happy to angry.

This book was full of twists, turns and revelations. Whew! Just when I thought I had things figured out, Watson threw in another twist. I had a hard time putting this page turner down. Just when I thought Watson was done shocking me, she managed another mind-blowing reveal at the end. Nicely played.

Gripping, shocking and full of twists!

Thank you to Bookouture and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.

First, I want to thank Sue Watson, Bookouture and NetGalley for providing me with this book so I can bring you this review.

YES!! The incredibly talented and gifted Sue Watson is back with another addictive read with The Nursery! This incredibly fast paced read will have your eyes glued to your kindle from start to finish in one sitting! It is a book you will want to add to your tbr list.

Sue instantaneously captures your interest with her frigid intense prologue. It was the perfect hook to the book!

From the prologue Sue jumps ahead to 12 year to modern day in Autumn where we meet Sofia and her Mom. I adored the interaction between the two that sometimes I found quite comical.

Sue had me on the edge of my seat nibbling on my nails with the intense shock filled scenes she wrote! Another story where a mother would go to great lengths to protect her child.

How can any man say that they don’t love their own child?! That is just so wrong on so many levels!!! After reading that I didn’t blame her for doing what she did and the reasoning behind it.

As much as I love social media, sometimes it isn’t used for the right reasons. There was a storyline within this book that somewhat creeped me out. I was not the only one that felt this way either!

Emily fled her life with her ex husband after he declared he could never really love their daughter Sofia. They landed in a seaside town and and elderly couple took them under their wing.

Now Sofia is a teenager and has begun talking to people she does not personally know online. This troubles Emily. She has always been secretive about their past life. Plus, Emily has been feeling like someone is watching her. Is her past coming back to haunt her after all these years? What exactly did happen years ago?

Sofia is the typical teenager, starting to distance herself from her parent. Emily is the worried parent, more worried than most parents due to her past. Nancy is the kind of friend that can get annoying after too much time together. Oliver is a possible lover interest for Emily. And Mr. Woods is the sweet man looking out for the family.

Get ready for some surprises! It's rare that I don't see them coming but I didn't in this one. It made the whole book.

Not my favorite by this author but I good read nonetheless.

Thanks to netgalley and Bookouture for the arc

The blurb on the front of the book is what grabbed my attention to read The Nursery. It took a long time before this information started to manifest itself in the story, up until which point I was thinking it was misleading the reader.
It twists around a lot, Emily overthinks everything and her constant fear is highlighted throughout, at times annoyingly too much.
It took me some time to stay with this story and really get into it. The storyline is different giving us real insight into the supposed culprit throughout.
Nancy the character we all get bored of, Sofia's classic teenager moods, the darling Mr Woods trying to keep an eye on his charges, the charismatic Oliver giving Emily hope of a beautiful future, the nosy neighbour who just slots into the story because Emily needs a vantage point and the manipulative Carys, all are not what they seem, but then as the reader we knew that, it was just fitting it altogether that was the puzzle.
It's a good story with an ending I didn't see coming.

The Nursery
Author: Sue Watson

aARC and Book Review
Pub Date: October 20, 2022

In Sue Watson's brand new thriller, The Nursery, we meet Emily, a single mother, and her teenage daughter, Sofia. The two are seemingly living a normal, happy life.

Suddenly, Emily feels as though someone is watching their house. The fear intensifies when someone breaks in and leaves a note. Emily, being the good mother she is, will do anything to keep Sofia safe - her only worry now is that her past is coming back to haunt her.

I enjoyed this novel! It was the first I've read from Sue Watson, and I look forward to reading more. It was fast-paced and exciting, but also slightly predictable once you got reading. I will say, the cover was slightly mis-leading and did not match the book's content in my opinion. However, it was a good book and I'd recommend it!

Thank you NetGalley, Bookouture, and the author for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Your mother isn’t who you think she is…

If you are in the mood for a completely gripping, utterly twisted thriller that will leave your jaw on the floor, then read this book. Perfect for fans of Gone Girl, The Wife Between Us and The Woman in the Window.

Spooky, disturbing, and compelling! There was so much going on in this book, and how the author was able to tie it together at the end was very talented and impressive. This is one of those books that you try to figure it all out and are wrong over and over again. I can picture this being a Netflix movie for sure! Though I didn’t approve of some of the ways Emily mothered her daughter, and couldn’t relate to some of her decisions, it made for a great book! I was disturbed by the online relationship that formed and grew, eventually leading to an in person introduction, but was also relieved in a sense when that piece was revealed. My heart ached for Sofia and all the teenage angst she felt and was trying to manage. It was evident that she was a good girl beneath the moodiness and snarkiness, but I couldn’t help but excuse some of it based on the circumstances she was dealing with while being a teenager. To me, one of the key pieces of a good book is having characters that you are interested in and feel a connection to - I had that with the characters in this book. Mr Woods was my favorite.

The Nursery is a great, captivating story that helped me out of a difficult moment, fully absorbing me into reading it. What's great about Sue Watson's books is how she manages to make you think you know exactly where the story is going and then she puts in a twist (or two, or three!) and you're completely blindsided!
Absolutely recommended!

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for this ARC.

Emily has always hid to her daughter, now teenager Sofia, what happened when she went missing 12 years ago, especially not what she did to get her back. But now Sofia has started to chat with a stranger online telling her that her mother isn't who she thinks is... And days later, Sofia vanishes again.
This psychological thriller started strong and presented twist after twist, with a good final twist, but I thought the ending was too elaborate. Also, there was too much foreshadowing (eg chapters ending with "little did she know her life was about to change"), which I'm not a fan of. I think the title and the cover don't match the story. But the plot was good, the characters were flawed (which is a good thing, gives them depth) and the pace was fast.
I received an advance review copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Sue Watson is one of my favourite authors for a gripping twisted thriller and she's done it again with this one. It grabbed me from the first few pages. I didn't know who to trust or believe and I didn't see those twists coming!

Emily is a single mum to Sofia living in Sidmouth. She moved there 12 years ago, running away from her husband and life in Manchester.

Always trying to keep her daughter safe, Emily doesn't have a big friendship group and doesn't trust easily. She has a best friend Nancy and Mr Woods, who she works for.

Now 15, Sofia is befriended on social media by a teenage girl and when Emily sees a message, "Your Mother isn't who you think she is" she realises the past may be about to catch up to her.

Emily will do anything to keep her daughter safe but can she escape the secrets of her past?

Chapters written from the point of view of Emily in current time and recalling her past. The story is well written and it was easy to keep page turning!

Another cracking read from Sue.

Many thanks to Netgalley, the publishers and the author for an ARC.

A brilliant read. A great story of a lovely lady Emily who does her very best to raise her child. As the story progresses we discover that all is not as it seems and there are a lot of twists and turns in the story. People are not who they seem to be.

The Nursery by Sue Watson.
Then: Morning light shines into the nursery, casting shadows across the pale pink walls and wooden cot in the middle of the room. She opens the door expecting to hear the soft coo of her daughter Sofia stretching herself awake. But the room is silent. The cot is empty. Her little girl has vanished…
Now: Twelve years have passed, but Emily will never forget the night her life changed forever and she’s happy to have her daughter back beside her. A teenager now, Sofia, who was once a star student, is getting into trouble at school and she’s started asking questions about when she was a baby, but Emily can’t tell her what really happened the night she went missing. Nobody would understand why Emily did what she did, and if anyone ever found out, she could lose her daughter forever.
I really enjoyed this book. I do like this author. 5*.

The surprises in this book just kept rolling out Of the barrel, even until the end.
It kept me on my toes as my detective senses were way off base with the accurate story,
It’s very invoked, twisted, and quite sordid. A sleepy little seaside town where nothing much happens, think again.
I shortly became frustrated with ‘Em. She was so passive and easily manipulative. Sofia needed to have an attitude adjustment and I would have put My foot down where Nancy was concerned.
The surprises in the story will knock you backwards.

★★★★ 3.5 stars (rounded up)

I am excited to be taking part in the #BooksOnTour #BlogTour for Sue Watson's tense domestic thriller THE NURSERY.

I'm a huge fan of Sue Watson and always eagerly await her next exciting thriller. She loves to write in a character that really gets under my skin though no one really stood out this time. Of course the teenager was a tad bratty (but then, aren't they all at that age? lol) but aside from that, no one really got under my skin as in some of her previous thrillers. I have to say the title, cover and premise intrigued me as I love missing/stolen children tropes so I was excited at the prospect of beginning this one. But...as I started it and got further in, I'm wondering am I reading the right book? I double check...yep, Sue Watson - check. The Nursery - check. So, where's the nursery? Where's the missing baby? The story the premise told seemed to be completely different. The only thing bearing any resemblance were the names. Ok, so what's going on here?

Emily and her teenage daughter Sofia live a quiet life in the small Devon town of Sidmouth. A place to which Emily fled some twelve years ago to escape a past, a husband and a secret she did not want coming out. They found refuge in the church on a rainy night where the vicar and his wife took them in. They introduced Emily to Mr and Mrs Woods who then took them in and gave them a place to rent for as long as they needed and Emily a job in their perfume shop. Twelve years later, Mrs Woods has passed on leaving her husband the fatherly task of caring for Emily and the now grown Sofia as if they were his own kin. Life is good now.

But beneath the surface something is bubbling. Emily senses that she is being watched and is shocked to discover empty strawberry milk cartons and chocolate wrappers in her yard. Then one night someone breaks into their flat, taking nothing but leaving an ominous note and a cryptic clue behind. Emily is frantic. Had the person from whom she fled caught up with her? Are she and Sofia in danger?

Things take an ominous turn when Emily discovers that her daughter has been messaging with a stranger online...and even more frightening is the message she catches a glimpse of before Sofia tucks her phone away from her mother's prying eyes:

"Your mother is a liar. She isn't who you think she is."

Who is doing this to her? Her ex? An online stalker? Or someone with more sinister intentions? And then Sofia disappears and Emily knows the secrets of the past will soon collide with the present.

So...that's all good and typically tense and interesting but where is the nursery in all that? As it is something of a key feature, I thought the nursery might be a prominent aspect but it doesn't appear till well over halfway through the book! And as it is a key factor, I felt it should have featured a little more in the story throughout...particularly the prologue, maybe? I understand the prologue as it was, but given that the nursery was an important part of the story, I feel that it should have featured there instead making the rest of the story a little more mysterious because the prologue as it was was more obvious to the story from the start. I also think maybe cryptic flashbacks of some kind throughout featuring the nursery would have added to the tension and the mystery too.

I honestly had a hard time getting into this book as it was something of a slow build that left me somewhat mystified as to where this nursery was. However, when it does make its appearance it is with such a bang it only reiterated my belief that it should have been given more prominence throughout. It is important, yes, and it is key to the story which is why I feel its presence should have been peppered throughout via cryptic flashbacks or nuances. Something to give readers a sense of its importance from the beginning while still keeping its true value a secret.

I am a big fan of Sue Watson's but this wasn't my favourite of hers. Parts of it dragged and while the story did pick up and became more interesting I feel it was a little too late. But what was delicious was the final twist at the end. I had already guessed it but it was still a delicious twist that left a far better taste. The other reveals, as they came, were also nice touches and I felt brought the story together more. There was only one aspect I felt didn't fit with Emily's private revelation about the mobile - the first cryptic clue left for her. How was it even possible?

And the premise? The depiction of one thing that is really another and in the end doesn't make any sense. No one was tucked in...why allude to that if it didn't happen?

THE NURSERY is certainly not what I expected and though I did end up enjoying it, it took a while to get there. It ended up a good read but it could have been a spectacular read! It was certainly a different avenue I'd not expected from one of my favourite authors and while not my favourite, I still enjoyed the ride...even if I was puzzled for most of it.

None of the characters are entirely likeable which probably didn't help. Emily is a mass of contradictions. Sofia is bratty. Nancy is a selfish cow. Oliver is too smooth. Cerys is psychotic. Only Mr Woods is likeable but who is he really? One thing is for certain...trust no one! I certainly didn't.

Best part about the book is that ending. WOW! Twisted. Delicious. Thank you Sue Watson.

"Be careful what you wish for".

I would like to thank #SueWatson, #NetGalley and #Bookouture for an ARC of #TheNursery in exchange for an honest review.

This review appears on my blog at https://stinathebookaholic.blogspot.com/.

The synopsis is really good for this one & I was thrilled to be given an advanced copy through NetGalley and Bookouture. Well let’s just say this is one I kinda wish I was denied! It wasn’t completely awful…it was actually a pretty quick & easy read BUT there were many reasons this book was only 3 stars. I’m going to do my best to explain without any spoilers so I apologize in advance if my review is vague.

First of all, the characters….I literally hated them all!! Emily (the main character) & Nancy (her best friend) were tied for being the worst character. Cerys, Sofia and Oliver were not too far behind them! If I had to pick one character who wasn’t completely annoying, it would be Mr. Woods.

Next, the storyline dragged for the first 50-60%. Emily has this huge secret that she has been hiding for over 12 years. She won’t get close to anyone, she won’t open up and share things for 12 whole years but then at the first sign of her past catching up to her, she all of a sudden has diarrhea of the mouth and is spilling everything to everyone….including a man who she literally just met like a week ago. 🙄

The next annoying thing was the way Emily parented her 15 year old daughter. I have a 15 year old and it would be a cold day in Hell before I worry about her privacy and allow her to run out of the house after dark! Just a lot of annoying parts when it comes to parenting in this book.

In conclusion I will say that there were a couple twists at the end that I didn’t see coming. It wasn’t enough to make me recommend this one. It was enough to make me feel like I didn’t totally waste my time reading it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Then: She opens the door expecting to find her daughter Sofia. But the room is silent. The cot is empty. Her little girl has vanished…

Now: Twelve years have passed, but Emily will never forget the night her life changed forever. A teenager now, Sofia has started asking questions about when she was a baby, but Emily can’t tell her what really happened the night she went missing.
Emily catches Sofia messaging a stranger her heart pounds in her chest as she reads the last message received.

This book was so unnerving, I could feel Emily's anxiety, paranoia and tension emanating off the pages, and it had me on the edge of my seat in anticipation. The being watched aspect is something that truly makes a book a thriller to me.

It was filled with twists, shocking reveals and oh so much drama ( some brought on by side characters)

All Emily wished for as a happy, connected family who was there for her, but learned that you really do need to be careful what you wish for.

All in all an enjoyable book, with everything I look for in a thriller.

Thank you netgalley and bookouture for the arc copy in exchange for my honest opinions.

This one will keep you on your toes. You realize from the beginning pages that something sinister is amiss, and you know that Emily has a past that she is afraid of. However, you do not fully comprehend just how twisted this plot will be until you get further into the book. The twists just kept coming. Emily has an adopted daughter, Sofia. She has never told Sofia she is adopted, and you know that she is hiding from her ex-husband, but you do not fully understand the desperation of the situation immediately. Someone has broken into her house. She feels someone is watching her house, and finds evidence that leads her to believe someone is watching the house.
Then she finds that her daughter is communicating on social media with a supposed teenage girl. She is not a happy mother at this point. I liked the character of Emily because it was readily apparent that she is a good mother, but you know she has a secret. Sofia was a little high maintenance, but I guess that is par for the course for a 15 year old girl. I wanted to smack Nancy. High maintenance does not even begin to describe this full grown bratty woman. I had a few suspicions about what was going to happen, but in true Sue Watson fashion, she knows how to surprise the reader with something coming out of left field! I enjoyed the twists in this book. They left me open mouthed a few times. This is definitely not Sue Watson's best book. However, it is Sue Watson, and it held my attention to the end. So, I had to give it four stars!

Thank you to Bookouture and NetGalley for this ARC. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Dark and twisted family domestic drama centering around a single mother who realizes she is being watched. The mother has secrets but so does the daughter. Sue Watson does not disappoint!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for this ARC!

Thank you Netgalley & Bookouture for an eARC of The Nursery by Sue Watson. I really enjoy Watson’s books - This one isn’t my favorite of hers I’ve read so far, but still a solid read!

Emily lives with her daughter Sofia, a teenager who is all of a sudden getting into trouble at school and asking questions about her upbringing. Emily is hiding many secrets from her past, and she’s doing anything she can to ensure Sofia - and nobody else - finds out. Emily catches Sofia messaging a stranger online, and they seem to not only know Emily, but know that she’s hiding something.

This was a slow burn for me with an absolute bang of an ending 85% on. Watson tends to deliver a twist after the “ending” is delivered, and as always she impressed with this. Can’t wait to see what she comes up with next.