This was an outstanding book with twist at every turn. A nurse who has finished school takes a job caring for a Drs wife who has psychological issues. She soon finds out that things aren’t as they seem. She begins helping the wife to get off her meds and finds out exactly why her husband has been controlling her. But then the book throws yet another twist at you. Fantastically written. Keeps you guessing.

The Nurse is one of those psychological thrillers that you can't put down even if you tried. Emily landed her dream job directly out of college working in the Roth's home as a private nurse. She is hired to take care of Dr. Roth's wife, Sabrina, who is struggling with mental illness. Shortly after being hired, things seemed off in the home. Emily couldn't help, but to think that Sabrina's husband wasn't this concerned doctor looking out for his wife's best interest. His sinister acts will later be revealed, but not until Dr. Roth gets a taste of his own medicine.

It didn’t take me long to finish this thriller, it had me hooked. I don’t usually try to guess where the plot is going, but I had an inkling of what was coming. I enjoyed it, nevertheless.

"The Nurse" by Jenna Kernan is a clever psychological thriller that poses some challenging moral questions and explores the choices that drive us to do the things we do.

The book follows Emily Lancing, a Licensed Practical Nurse with aspirations, who applies for a job at the residence of the Roth family. Dr. Henry Roth, a prominent psychiatrist, hires her to be the personal nurse for his troubled wife Sabrina. Emily's role extends beyond nursing; she is also expected to serve as a housekeeper, handle light household chores such as tidying up and doing laundry, and drive Sabrina around, among other tasks. Additionally, she must ensure that Sabrina takes all her medications. According to the husband, Sabrina suffers from delusions and other mental health issues that require consistent medication to prevent her condition from deteriorating

Pretty soon Emily fell into routine, spending her days at Sabrina’s side. When she begins to suspect that Dr. Roth is over-medicating his wife, she noses around to determine his trustworthiness. She seeks to discern whether he is a devoted husband or an unscrupulous one, controlling his wife for his own benefit. In either case, she finds herself treading on dangerous ground.

The book starts slowly, but the pace picks up in the second part of the book. The detailed descriptions of day-to-day activities were more than enough to maintain interest. The focus is primarily on the characters and their motivations, and I appreciated the dynamics between them.

The characters are complex and compelling, particularly Emily. I did feel she made some unwise choices and took unnecessary risks. While I understood her actions, I had mixed feelings about some of them.

Toward the end of the book, I guessed the impending twist, so it didn't come as a great shock. Nevertheless, I found it brilliantly executed. I did feel that the author spoon-fed us the solution to the puzzle in the last chapter, going into unnecessary detail to explain some aspects. However, I'm unsure if it could have been handled differently.

Overall, I enjoyed the read and found the concept interesting. I will definitely read more books by this author. I recommend the book to people who readers who relish delving into the mindset of characters. Just don't expect a fast-paced narrative and allow the story to develop slowly and creep up on you. It will be worth the wait!

* Thank you NetGalley and (publisher) for the opportunity to read this arc. All opinions are my own.

The Nurse is a psychological thriller that takes a turn just as you thought you had it figured out. The surprise twist at the end brought everything together and made for an unexpected ending. My feelings for the characters were all over the pace in this one because I did not know what to think. Worth the read.

The Nurse by Jenna Kernan promises an intriguing premise and, for the most part, delivers a suspenseful and pacey tale.

Taking a job as the personal nurse of Dr. Roth's wife Sabrina, Emily wonders if she has taken on more than she can handle. Sabrina is difficult and often seems delusional, and Emily wonders if she is being given the correct dosage of medication. But surely her husband, a respected psychiatrist, would not make such a grave error in judgement, would he? As Emily spends more time in the company of the Roths, deceptions and secrets will be revealed, keeping the reader enthralled through the very last page.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for an ARC.

Excellent read! This was my first book from this author and I loved it from the first chapter! Started off strong and the suspense just kept building throughout the book. Great character development and what a shocking ending! It all came together seamlessly. Will definitely look for other books from this author. Definitely recommend! Thank you to NetGalley, Bookouture and Jenna Kernan for the opportunity to read and review this ARC. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Amazing!! This book was brilliant! I was not expecting the ending, and I was really blown away by it. So, so good, and I would highly recommend to anyone who loves a good thriller! I can't wait to read more from this author.

Ok so the blurb of this book reeled me in but a few chapters in and unfortunately I was bored.
Everything was dragged out unnecessarily and never got straight to the point!
The ending got a bit better but it was an obvious twist to the book.
Emily had this curly red unruly hair but yet managed to keep it tidy and not bulging through dr roths hoodie!
After this book I don’t think I’ll be reading anything by this author again!

When you do something a lot, you get a lot of experience and you are ending up being quite good in it. I was wondering if the same works for reading thrillers and crime books? I have the feeling I often start seeing beyond the words and maybe diving into some of the characters minds following their train of thought? Of course, I am not able to figure everything out and I am still pleasantly surprised or utterly shocked by some of the revelations.

This is one of those books where you don't know who you can trust. You are constantly wondering who is the actor of the year and who is the victim in the end.

The story opened with a bang and from then on it's slowly building up to the climax. 

The lesson I have learned is that someone who thinks they hold all the cards, can end up loosing them all. 

I thoroughly enjoyed the nurse's story even though I certainly don't agree with everything, but I can see where she is coming from. 5 stars

Thank you

Definitely a twisted thriller

I was sorta meh with how I thought it was going to end but then boy oh boy was I thrown for a loop.

Highly recommend this twisted psychological thriller!

Full of deceit and secrets, this book was intense and thrilling for sure! I couldn’t put this one down, the plot had me hooked from the beginning and I had to get to the bottom of it!
Thoroughly enjoyed this, will definitely recommending to my friends and coworkers in the medical field as a Fun read.

Thank you to Bookouture, the author and NetGalley for the ARC.

All opinions are solely my own

⭐️⭐️⭐️ out of 5

Amidst the humid backdrop of a Florida town the wealthy and those who serve them live out their secrets. Emily, a recent nursing program graduate interviews for the job of her dreams; a private nurse for a mentally challenged, spoiled housewife, Sabrina. Sabrina’s husband, respected psychiatrist Dr. Roth is his wife’s treating physician as well as concerned husband.

Upon receiving the job of her life, Emily agrees to all conditions laid out, nurse, driver, cook, maid after signing a NDA. She learns Sabrina is paranoid with delusions and must rely heavily on a steady pharmaceutical regimen to treat the worst symptoms. Sabrina is a petulant dismissive patient…but are her delusions really imaginary? Are shadow people following her or is dr Roth over medicating his wife for other reasons?

This domestic thriller contains all the elements of a suspenseful tale. What is real and what isn’t? Who is the prey and who is the hunter and why? Saying that, the story takes a long and I do mean long route to get to it. I prefer a growing sense of unease, I didn’t feel it until about the 70% point. The author waits until the last chapter to describe in detail how the events unfolded; I wanted to get there by picking up hints along the way and drawing my own conclusions not read a step by step synopsis. Take me on the journey with you.

Character development was strong for the main characters not so much for secondary ones. Atmosphere was descriptively accentuated.

This book had me on the edge of my seat trying to figure out who was behind it all. Definitely highlights the concerns that home nurses can face. Enjoyable read

For a domestic thriller, this has a different story. The pace is very slow and as is typical with this genre, the last 20% has twists and revelations.
Emily Lancing, recently got her nursing degree. She lives with a roommate - Jennell Green, and is hopefully of getting into a job which pays decently. She has no family now – with her parents dying of cancer (her mother more recently), and her sister taking her own life (the circumstances leading to this are covered later in the story). Dr Henry Roth is looking for a private nurse for his wife Sabrina (Bree). He has a psychiatric practice and is doing well. Their daughter Taylor Lee is married and in Tampa, with her husband finishing his residency. Sabrina has had some very traumatic experiences – she lost her brother Julian when he was a toddler, and somewhat recently was in a car accident. Dr Roth says Sabrina tends to get confused and is prone to false memories, and feels somebody is watching and following her. Sabrina mentions some incidents and Emily wonders if they could have really happened. Sabrina also comes across as excessively medicated to Emily, though Dr Roth insists there is no other option.

The plot is weak overall, and the build-up is very slow. The twist near the end while appearing clever requires elaborate plot tie-up to make it plausible. And the author does that – there is a fairly long and detailed explanation of how the story comes together (though the narration in the earlier sections was obviously tailored to get readers to make assumptions).

My rating: 3.25 / 5.

This book started super slow. It took me a while to get into. Once I got about 40% through the book, it started getting good. I found myself unable to put it down. Just when I thought it was all out there and I had everything figured out, another twist was thrown it. It ended up being a great read just a slow start.

This was super close to being a 5 star read for me! The main reason I dropped it down to a 4 star rating were the pacing issues. I felt like the book dragged quite a bit at the beginning and middle. I wasn't entirely "on the edge of my seat" for the vast majority of the book so that made me read it over many sessions instead of binging it like I normally would with a thriller. The ending of this book is really what could have made it 5 stars. What was really successful in this book was the portrayal of the wife Sabrina and how unreliable she was as a character. I really thought I had her figured out but wow was I wrong. The plot twists were super unpredictable in the end and extremely satisfying for the reader. I really enjoyed being in the dark until the confession/who dun it took place. I also enjoyed how we got an explanation on how the twist was pulled off. I find thrillers have a bad tendency to have massive twists that lack practicality and leave the reader to make assumptions on how the twists took place. This was a really successful thriller and I really enjoyed the last third.

Thank you Netgalley, Bookouture and Jenna Kernan for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. The Nurse will be published October 2, 2023.

As a nurse I love medical thrillers and this one did not disappoint! I like that it was a home setting instead of a hospital- a nice change. I did not guess the twist, that made reading it even better.
On a personal note I enjoyed that the nurse was a LPN instead of RN as I am a LPN..
I definitely recommend!

What a wild ride!
The first 25% felt a bit long and hard to get into, but then everything started happening at once and the ending was a blast.
I loved the characters and the story line with this one.
Karma is a B..
Can't wait to read more from this author!

Wow! Fabulous dark and creepy vibe and I loved it! My first Jenna Kernan book but definitely not my last. This book was captivating from the very beginning and kept me engaged the whole time. Well written and perfectly executed. The story just flowed and never stopped with the twists and turns. Highly recommend