The title of this book had me intrigued and the beginning started off really well and had me hooked.

However, the more I read, the more I felt you had to have a degree in psychology and bi-polar symptoms to understand what was going on. Don´t get me wrong, the book is really clever, but felt it got rather heavy towards the end, which slightly lessened my enjoyment of it.

Saying this, I think I will reread it again at some point in the not too distant future, and discover I really enjoy the complexity of it all. I´m sure other people will love it.

My thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for giving me the opportunity to read an advanced digital copy in return for an honest review.

Thank you Bookouture and NetGalley for an early copy of The Perfect Nanny. This was not my cup of tea. A long boring read. The last fifteen minutes of the book was the Best, totally did NOT see that coming but the bulk of it was agonizing. I’m so sorry.

“My baby! You stole my baby!” Lara Smith is hysterical, her red lipstick smeared. A teddy lies abandoned in the empty crib. But I didn’t know the Smiths had a baby. I didn’t even know this nursery existed…

The Smith family is full of creepy assholes. I really liked this book. Lots of twists and turns and I had know idea how it was going to end. Well done!

This book has lots of unexpected twists and turns.Every time I thought I knew what was going on, things were switched up again. It was a bit over the top, but it did hold my interest.

4 stars

This book was amazing! I was never bored and the twist and turns keep me engaged. The ending was absolutely perfect!

I hated this. Too many characters, too many plot lines, too many “twists” that seemed like errors or mistakes, too much dialogue that didn’t go anywhere, too many loose ends or aspects that just didn’t make any sense. For example, there is a scene when Haley locks the apartment door with the chain lock, then takes the fire escape to leave the building. But when she comes home, she enters through the lobby and enters the apartment from the front door. How? With the chain still in place from before she left. When Haley sees the address of the Smith’s house she says something like “no way” but it’s never explained why she has that reaction. Is it just because they are rich? About 65% of the way in Haley says, “I was set up for this.” NO, DUH. I was able to predict the ending not because I’m good at that (which I am) but it’s the only explanation for why this story makes absolutely no sense. I gave this two stars only because the idea is so interesting and endearing….although that fell apart quickly.

Where has Shari J. Ryan been hiding? The Perfect Nanny had me gripped from the very first page and I could not put it down. Crazy, wild, unstoppable … that’s what this book was! I loved it and all the characters were fantastic! Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this advance copy in exchange for my early review. To be published February 2024. Will definitely look for more books by this author. She was fantastic!

Book Title: The Perfect Nanny
Author: Shari J. Ryan
Publisher: Bookouture
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Pub Date: February 9, 2024
My Rating: 4.5 rounded up
Pages: 374

Haley Vaughn is completing a PhD Program in Childhood Psychology with a focus on Childhood Behavioral Health Counseling, she has one year to go. She has been working at the Children’s Rehabilitation Center, however the Center merged with another clinic and she’s without a job. She knows it is important to have experience in child development so decides her only option is to find a summer job as a nanny. So she puts out a post advertising her availability.
She gets a call from Lara Smith who was impressed with her post and states she need someone to take care of the children during the weekdays this summer. She wants them outside and off their devices. Madden and Blakely are nine year old twins. She also states she a needs someone this Friday as she and her husband Corbin have a Charity Gala to attend.

When Lara and her husband return from the gala at 10:00pm, Lara checks on the children and immediately starts screaming, “My baby! You stole my baby!”

Lara’s husband - dials 911 and states: “The babysitter has taken our baby girl.”
Haley didn’t know the Smiths had a baby!
And the story begins . . . . .

I liked this story immediately as I liked Haley
When the truth started to come out, I was stunned!
I often say the story was a surprise but in this case I truly was stunned!
I was reading as fast as my eyes would focus.

This is my second Shari J. Ryan] book when I read "The Homemaker" my comments was, why does the book title indicate ~ “An utterly unputdownable psychological thriller packed with heart-pounding twists”.
I rolled my eyes ~ “Hmmm it seems publishers can come up with another teaser - this is used ALL the time!
When I finished - I said ~ Okay! This was an utterly an unputdownable psychological thriller!
Ditto to “The Perfect Nanny”!

Now I am looking forward to Ms. Ryan’s next totally unputdownable psychological thriller!!

In Ms. Ryan’s ‘Acknowledgements’ she states- “Writing this was another wild ride4 in the world of psychological thrillers!”.
I agree 100%

Want to thank NetGalley and Bookouture for this early uncorrected proof.
Publishing Release Date scheduled for February 9, 2024.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for the ARC in return for an honest review.

This book exceeded my expectations. The storyline is centered around a nanny who is hired to care for two 9-year-old twins, but upon the parents' return home, they inquire about the whereabouts of a baby that was never mentioned during the interview process. I won't divulge any spoilers, but what initially seems like a case of a missing child turns out to be much more complex. 🤯🤌🏽

This is a fast read if that’s what you’re looking for. I couldn’t put it down. The ending was perfect/brilliant.

I will be reading more books by the wonderful Shari J Ryan.

This book comes to kindle unlimited Feb 9 2024 :)

What do you do when you just want an easy and straight forward nannying job for the summer and you think you’re only responsible for 2 children, but the parents come home saying they’ve had 3 children this whole time and accusing you of kidnapping the 3rd child….

Wow.. just wow… I literally did not trust ANYONE in this book and I could not turn the pages fast enough to get to the ending and found out who did what!

The book had me hooked from the first line and then kept me interested throughout the entire story.

This is my first book from this author and it will not be my last!

Thank you to Netgalley and Bookouture for this free eARC.

This book had me gripped from the very first pages, full of drama and plenty of twists and turns.
I just knew there had to be more to the disappearance of baby Fallon and that there was another side to Haley.
A really fast paced unputdownable read.

Some of the twists came out of nowhere, no build up, just delivered and I feel that they took away from the fantastic plot a bit. I had already guessed a lot of it and so they weren’t really surprises but the way the ending was delivered was brilliant and terrifically written.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for the ARC in return for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the digital ARC!

This was an absolute wild ride - I think I spent the last 15 minutes of this audibly cursing and saying 'what the hell?' Out loud. Given it's a thriller, I was expecting plot twists but hoo boy...these were Plot Twists.

Haley is a student trying to finish out her PhD, and she advertises herself as a nanny to make some money over the summer. She gets hired to care for some creepy twins, but things go bad when she's accused of kidnapping their baby daughter...a baby she didn't even know was missing. As you might expect, there's a LOT more going on than what's on the surface and it was fun to ride it all the way to the end.

I will say that this read a little young sometimes, which was odd, and you definitely need to suspend your disbelief. There's some wild stuff that happens that isn't believable, but then the whole premise is just bizarre anyway.

It was a quick read, and I did enjoy it!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my copy of this book.

When Hayley takes a job babysitting 9 year old twins, she is excited to have it lead to a nannying job for the summer. However, her plans are shattered when the parents return from their night out. Hayley is accused of kidnapping their one year old baby. Nobody told Hayley about a baby. On the days following Hayley finds everything she knows fall to pieces.

Wow! I’ve just finished this and can just about breath again. This was one heck of a book. It pulled me in straight away and I immediately sympathised with student Hayley over the almost perfect and rich mother Lara. Best friend and the potential boyfriend were incredibly convincing. They were warm and everything Hayley needed them to be. I enjoyed the teasers of thirteen years ago too.

This one has one hell of a twist too it. Without giving away spoilers, everything I thought I had figured out was turned on its head. The ending was explosive, fast paced and a little bit confusing. I feel the confusion aptly fitted the conclusion of the book through and therefore was appropriate.

Highly recommend this!

Five spine chilling stars. This book starts off at breakneck speed! A missing baby, what could be more suspenseful. Did the baby really exist? How could the babysitter not know there was another child. This book takes you deep into a twisted turning tale with a finale you won’t see coming. Every page brings something new and no one is what they seem. By the end of this book I was stunned. There are very few books where a plot twist is so crazy that I don’t see it coming. A literal explosive ending. My mind and heart were still racing after I finished the last page. This was an epic read that will keep you flipping pages because you have to know what happens next

I’ve enjoyed other books by Shari Ryan, but unfortunately this one didn’t work for me. Some parts seemed a bit rushed, others read more like an YA book, and the solutions / reveals were a little too convenient or far fetched. I look forward to trying the author’s next book.

Book: The Perfect Nanny by Shari J. Ryan
Publisher: Bookouture
Publication Date: 2/09/2024

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

This book started off with a bang! The FMC, Haley, is an average college student needing to make ends meet. Looking a summer job, Haley put up adds for a nanny position. She gets a call to come do a trial run as a summer nanny for a rich couple with 9 year old twins. Haley comes to babysit the two girls and when their parents come home and ask where their 3 child is, all hell breaks lose. Haley becomes a person of interest in the kidnapping of a young child. She is completely caught off guard and her entire career is put at risk.

This portion of the book really had my attention. I had high hopes because the book started so strong. It had creepy kids, alleged kidnapping, rich accusers, bread crumbing etc. Then the story takes a twist to link Haley's past to the family that hired her and it starts to lose focus.

Haley starts her own investigation after realizing that the woman that hired her was a young girl from her past that used to bully her and blames her for her sister's fiery death. Then there is Liam, (new guy out of nowhere) that isn't terrified of her red flags for being an alleged kidnapper?

The ending in 1st person at the end had a lot of potential. I think it didn't land the way it could have because of all the filler story from the past and her parent's storyline. I also wish there was more character development. I wanted to feel more connected to the characters.

All in all it had a great start and the ending was twisted - which I enjoyed. I think this would make a good film if executed with more clarity and focus on the present versus leaning so heavily on Haley's past.

This was a weird psychological thriller with a jaw dropping ending that I did not see coming,
If you like a book that keeps you guessing & questioning what you just read you’ll like this book.
How can someone be accused of taking a baby they didn’t know existed is what kept going through my head until the story starts to unfold and we see how and why it’s possible. Then the side story of parents doing things to protect their children throws in a whole other twist.my mind was trying to figure out what was happening the whole time.

Haley needs a job for the summer and gets a job babysitting twin 9 year old girls. When the parents return from a night out asking where their baby is, Haley has no idea what they’re talking about. From there the twists keep coming and by the end it just seemed a little unrealistic. This book sucked me in right from the beginning with how fast paced it was, but overall wasn’t my favourite.

This book starts with a bang - From the description, Haley takes a job babysitting twin nine-year-olds but the parents start screaming about a missing baby when they come home. Since you know that's going to happen, it makes the lead up more interesting. The parents give her a tour of the house but deliberately say not to open a specific door. One of the kids start to say something but then the parents shush her. It's done really well.

After Haley is questioned by the police, she thinks the parents are hiding something so she starts investigating on her own. And then she's attacked in an alley. And her roommate is clearly hiding something, but what? And how about the hot sexy man she met right before everything happened? And of course she has something hidden in her past which must slowly be revealed.

It had all the elements of a great story but ultimately was a bit meh. The first revelations were great but then it just convoluted and kept getting more ridiculous. I think ultimately the book would have been more successful if it was told from the 3rd person POV. The final big reveal didn't work for me in the 1st person.

I also don't know much about how the court system actually works, only what I see on tv/read in books, but having a trial within a few days of the event you're being tried for and have 3 different people being tried (with 2 different lawyers) seemed odd. It could be that's how it works and tv/books get it wrong (which I know is true for some parts of the court system), but it felt unbelievable.

As others have said - if you want a subtler suspense/mystery, this is not your book. If you want all sorts of crazy stuff happening that doesn't all fit together, then this is the book for you.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for this advance review copy.

This started well but the last 25% lost me completely and ended really flatly.
I liked the twists but there was just something that didn't feel right towards the end.