Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. Scotland and a disappearing AuPair? What more is there to love than a mystery in Scotland?

BLOG TOUR REVIEW
Review for 'The Au Pair' by Jane Renshaw.
Read and reviewed for Netgalley, Jane Renshaw, Inkubator Books and Zooloo's Book Tours.
Publication date 28th January 2024.

This is the first book I have read by this author but it most definitely wont be my last!!!

This novel consists of a prologue, 52 chapters and an epilogue. The chapters are short to medium in length so easy to read 'just one more chapter' before bed...OK, I know yeah right, but still just in case!

This book is extremely well written with vivid descriptions that really set the scene and kept me on the edge of my seat. The cover and synopsis suited the storyline perfectly.

OMG!!! MIND ABSOLUTELY BLOWN!!!! A GRIPPING, DARK AND SUSPENSE FILLED PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO PUT DOWN!!!

I absolutely love, LOVE, LOVED this absolute page turner!! If you are a fan of Shalini Boland, Freida McFadden and just explosive psychological thrillers in general then this is a book for you!! This book is extremely fast paced and kept me on the edge of my seat throughout. It was one of those true gems where if you had to put it down you had to race back as soon as you could to find out what was going to happen next. The plot is unique which is always a bonus after reading so many psychological thrillers. The storyline is absolutely ram packed with mystery, deceit, secrets, lies, tension, suspense and OMG the twists just kept on coming again and again!!! Just when I thought everything that could happen had happened BOOM there was another shocker around the corner. Every time I kept telling myself one more chapter the one I was in ended at a point where there was no way I could stop reading so I absolutely devoured it in one sitting!! I WAS absolutely blown away and considering I read approximately 30 books a month that is certainly no easy feat so a HUGE congratulations on that Jane!! I absolutely loved the beautiful yet creepy setting and scenery of the remote lodge in Scotland which went perfectly well with the creepy and dark storyline!!! Jane does an absolutely amazing job of weaving the multiple protagonists and multiple timelines together to drip feed the reader just about the right amount of information that she wants us to until she absolutely spins everything around again!! The fantastic descriptions really made me feel like I was in the storyline along with Alice and Melanie and my heart was pounding while I was biting my nails in suspense, I have not got much of my nails left now so thanks for that Jane!!! This is one of those fantastic books that have a small amount of characters but those characters you are constantly left doubting and questioning as you have no idea who has done what, who is hiding what and what they are really after. I just did not want to put this book down as I just had to know what was really going on and I never could have come anywhere near to working this one out!!! In fact I just couldn't put it down and ended up absolutely devouring it in one sitting of several hours, completely sucked into the heart racing plot!! I absolutely LOVED how it ended and I cannot wait to get stuck into the next book by this fantastic author!! I really could not recommend this book any more. If you are looking for something unique, filled with suspense that will leave you guessing and that will blow your mind then this is definitely the book for you!!

DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT READING THIS UNTIL YOU HAVE CLEARED YOUR SCHEDULES AS YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO PUT IT DOWN!!!

I wasn't just 100% invested in the storyline but also in the characters. Each and every one of the characters were well defined, realistic and strong. The main protagonists are Alice whose perspective is written from before she disappeared and Melanie whose chapters are written from the present day. There is a large difference in their personalities with Alice being younger, more naive/innocent and a bit spoilt with Melanie being more mature, headstrong and determined. Jane wove their chapters together perfectly in a way to give us the bigger picture of their personalities while only drip feeding us the information she wants us to see and when she sees it. Jane's fantastic descriptions ensures the reader sees, feels and hears everything that the characters are seeing and feeling which leaves their heart racing along with them. It really brings the storyline and the characters to life, for better or worse!! Gray absolutely made my skin crawl and I could not stand him and I was also questioning other characters. Unfortunately I am not going to be able to say much more at all about them as I don't want to run the risk of giving anything away. What I will say is that how I felt for all of them throughout the storyline definitely changed constantly and there were feelings of sympathy, anger, sickening, disbelief and so much more that I felt towards some of them at different times!!! It is one of those books that leaves you questioning who to trust, who is telling the truth and who is playing a game. There were one or two characters that I absolutely could not abide but then you can't love everyone especially in a psychological thriller otherwise it wouldn't be much fun would it!! Needless to say they all worked perfectly together to make this page turner as amazing as it is!!! Congratulations Jane on creating such a group of well defined, realistic and in some cases unnerving characters. I am really looking forward to meeting more of your characters in your previous and future books!!


A HUGE CONGRATULATIONS to Jane on what promises to be a massive best seller!!! I WAS absolutely shocked by so many explosive twists!!! This is why I would like to welcome you to my favourite author list Jane and here's to your next explosive success 🥂!!!

Make sure you read to the very end of the book to read the prologue and first chapter of Jane's 'No Place Like Home' which promises to be just as addictive as this book and one I am definitely looking forward to reading myself!! If you sign up to Jane's newsletter (link in kindle copy or via her website) you will receive a free copy of her short story 'The Guests'.

Overall an absolutely addictive, mind blowing page turner that will keep you up with a racing heart until you've finished!!!

352 pages.

This book is just 99p to purchase on kindle, free with kindle unlimited and £10.99 in paperback on Amazon at time of review which I think is an absolute bargain for this book!!!

Rated 5 /5 (I LOVED it ) on Goodreads, Instagram, Amazon UK and Amazon US and on over 30 Facebook pages plus my blog on Facebook.

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This was propulsive and fast. It held my attention right from the start. I haven't read this Author before and will definately read again. Well written ! Brilliant read.

This was very well written. I love my thrillers to be full of suspense and heart pounding moments and this delivered on all fronts. I loved the plot and it flew by because of all the suspense filled moments.

I enjoyed who this whole book was filled with a really dark foreboding atmosphere and it gave way to a very addictive thriller.

Thank you Netgalley and Inkubator Books for this ARC of ‘The Au Pair’ by Jane Renshaw.

This was so well written and full of suspense. I read this all in one go as I couldn’t put it down and the ending is just perfect! I look forward to reading more from this author.

Overall, I would recommend this book to others. I enjoy books that have a dual point of view as this one does. There are definitely some twists, none of which I wish to give away! And there shall be some unsavory characters you are not fond of.... I hope you enjoy it as much as I did! Definitely give it a read if you are able.

An enjoyable thriller, although a bit predictable at times. However, there was one twist that I did not see coming and that pleasantly surprised me. Recommended for those who enjoy psychological and atmospheric thrillers.

I got this arc in exchange for an honest review.

Soon after Alice runs from away from home to become an au pair in Scotland, she mysteriously disappears. The new au pair, Donna, makes it her mission to find out what happened to Alice as soon as she is hired.
This was a fantastic read that kept me wanting to know how this was going to end. I loved how it flipped between the past with Alice and the present with Donna. There were red herons along the way that would mix me up.

The Au Pair by Jane Renshaw held such promise and it has a great premise. Eighteen-year-old Alice wants to break away from her small-town life in the States but her parents don’t want her to take a gap year in Europe. So, she applies for a job as an au pair in Scotland and leaves home. She is excited to be on her own and experiencing life in a foreign country. But, after only a few months, she disappears without a trace. Alice is quickly replaced by Melanie, who is quite interested in the time Alice spent with the family.

The story moves back and forth between the two women and as hard as I tried, I just couldn’t seem to become invested in their stories. The pace was fairly slow and somehow seemed awkward, it took a while to develop the plot which didn’t hold very much suspense for me, and the ending was presented with a host of new, suddenly revealed facts.

As a result, I didn’t find any of the characters very appealing so it was difficult to really care about the final outcome, which seemed to take a long time to resolve. The Au Pair just wasn’t a book I enjoyed to any great extent and can only give it 2.5 stars. NetGalley provided an advance copy

I found myself distracted by the narration in this book. It has the good plot but the gripping is missing, based on my opinion. However, it was something new and refreshing in the ocean of thrillers !

Thank you NetGalley and Inkubator Books for the ARC of The Au Pair.

This was a fantastic and fast-paced read that I absolutely could not put down. The twists were large and it was one of those books where you felt like you knew part of what was going on, but not quite enough to make sense of what was happening.

The two main characters (Melanie and Alice) which you read in the point of views of are strong female leads that the reader becomes very invested in the well-being of. Although both characters were very different in personality and age, I found myself drawn into both of their orbits and how we would find them as the plot thickened. Alice, a new high school graduate who runs away from home (just for the summer) to au pair is an overly sheltered and overly trusting young woman who takes joy in the small things and sees magic in all places. Melanie, older and a bit harder, is less trusting and more skeptical of the Davidsons and the lodge that they run.

I also loved the children, each so different in personality and actions. Each of these characters is so well described and developed that I was able to ascertain a clear picture of each in my head.

The alternating point of view between Alice (in the past) and Melanie (in the present) really worked well in adding to the twists of the story. Almost the entire story we are wondering what happened to Alice, while Melanie helps us determine what is wrong with the lodge and the Davidsons.

As Melanie stays for longer and finds out more about what happened or didn't happen with Alice, we start to wonder if Melanie might find herself in the same sort of trouble too, adding to the suspense.

The setting, like the characters is very well-described and gives the reader a clear picture of the Scottish country side and the idyllic lodge. This book both made me want to go to Scotland more and less at the same time. Although beautiful in its isolation, the reader is left to wonder whether this isolation will cause the downfall of Melanie and Alice.

This was my first Jane Renshaw book, but it defintiely will not be my last after reading The Au Pair. The amount of detail Renshaw was able to pack into the plot and characters was superb.

Calling all mystery, thriller, and suspense readers- this is a book to pick up.

I wish to thank NetGalley and the novel’s publishers for the free ARC of The Au Pair by Jane Renshaw which allowed me to discover a work by this new writer. From the beginning, this novel had all the hallmarks of a good thriller: a dual timeline, with one centred on an unsuspecting young woman (Alice) who travels to a remote location (Scotland) for a job (as an au pair) but disappears, and a second, contemporary timeline, of another young woman (Melanie) determined to resolve the mystery, who in the process puts herself in danger. The passages of sexual assault and victim-shaming are hard to read, even in full consciousness that this is a work of fiction, but overall, this was a well-written, believable thriller that should be guaranteed a wide readership.

What a fantastic book! This had me on the edge of my seat the whole time and left me guessing until the end. I must say though, some of it was verging on being a bit much and that’s coming from someone who can pretty much handle anything in a book. My one criticism would be the victim blaming which did make me uncomfortable but then once you get to the end, it makes sense as to why that particular character would say such things.

A very good thriller and easy read!

Wow! A well written story with lots of twists and turns, complete with scene descriptions that make one feel that they were there alongside of Alice and Melanie. The conclusion left me feeling completely satisfied. There may be traumatic triggers for some readers, but for me, I found them real and written tastefully. I am looking forward to reading more by this author.

I found this book a little bit slow to start with however it sure did make up for lost time. It highlights how far a mother will go to ensure their child has the best life possible. Thrilling and exciting read!

Okay so I gave this book another go.

This book was a great thriller. I really enjoyed the dual POV. I loved watching this all come together throughout the chapters.
Jane Renshaw did an excellent job writing these characters. the things that took place throughout the book left me in shock! The conclusion was WOW!

I felt so sorry for the children in this story who were clearly so very fond of their au pair Alice. I read this book wondering quite how many thoroughly unsavoury characters could be crammed into one story - quite a few as it turns out!

Melanie has her motives for being the family's new au pair and these get revealed along the way and explain why she risks quite so much to uncover the truth of what happened to naive student au pair, Alice. With so much appearing just a little bit 'off' about so many members of this family it makes for an engrossing read trying to work out what happened to Alice and whether Melanie is at risk too - is it all just a mix up or are things as wrong as they seem. Can she trust any of them?

This clever and sinister tale made for a great read with some unconventional twists. My thanks to the author and Zooloo's Book Tours for letting me be a part of this blog tour.

Dive into the heart of Scotland with The Au Pair, a riveting thriller that intricately weaves secrets, deception, and familial bonds. The Davidsons may seem like an ordinary family at a glance, but beneath their normal façade lies a chilling secret that entangles American student Alice Snyder.

Alice's initial excitement about her summer in Scotland as the family's au pair quickly turns into a nightmare, leading to her mysterious disappearance. Melanie, the new au pair, steps into a household filled with eerie occurrences. From the sinister activities under the cover of night to the unnerving Uncle Gray, signs of danger abound, including haunting scratch marks hinting at Alice's desperate struggles.

The Au Pair skillfully shifts between different viewpoints, adding depth and suspense to the narrative. Set in a secluded Scottish lodge, this novel blends mystery with elements of horror, captivating the reader with its meticulously plotted story. The characters draw you into their lives, making their fears and hopes palpable, and driving the story towards a climax full of unexpected twists.

Despite some narrative complexities and less developed subplots, The Au Pair maintains a strong hold on the reader's imagination, leading to a suspenseful climax. It's a story that not only entertains but also makes you ponder the extents to which one might go to uncover the truth. Whether you're a thriller aficionado or new to the genre, The Au Pair is a fascinating journey that promises to keep you engaged from start to finish.

One of the best thrillers I have read recently. I really enjoyed the dual POV and watching it all weave together as the chapters flew by.

Jane Renshaw sure does know how to write vile characters and I gasped at times at some of the things that took place. The conclusion was very satisfying.

A new author for me and this won't be the last book I read by them.

The Au Pair fell a bit short for me. Alice is a 18 year old who left her United States home to travel to Scotland without telling her parents or friends. She secretly applied for the Au Pair job with the Davidson family who lived in a remote castle like home.

It was suspenseful and had a few twists and turns. There should be trigger warnings for this book. Could cause some distress to some. A few times I thought of not finishing the book.

I found the ending abrupt.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC.