Thank you, NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book. It always excites me when I can read books early. This book was so good! I thought I had the twist figured out but.. the author surprised me. Those are my favorite types of books. I highly recommend this one to anyone that loves thriller books!

18 year old Alice travels from the US to Scotland to become an Au Pair for a family who lives in an old Scottish mansion. She did not told her parents that she was leaving beforehand, she just left a note that she goes somewhere to the UK, took some money and disappeared. Alice is incredibly naïve and inexperienced. So she is very impressed when she arrives in Scotland and meets her family. The mansion is huge and she got the “princess room” in one of the towers overlooking the breathtaking landscape. She is charmed by the children, thinks the mother is glamorous and soon she swoons over Gray, the handsome brother-in-law.

In this book there are two Au Pairs. Alice, of course, and then there is Melanie aka Donna. Alice obviously went missing soon after her arrival and Melanie, who is not really an Au Pair, takes her place because she wants to find out what happened to Alice. She sees everything through different eyes. The mansion is run down and the family seems fishy. We will find out how she is connected to Alice later in the book.

The chapters of the girls alternate and soon you can sense there is something going on in this family. But the first chapters held a promise the rest of the book could not keep. The story quickly fell off. Something is always happening but the story is all over the place. While Alice and Melanie are well done characters, the family is a bit wishy-washy. Especially the mother acts inconsequent and erratic.

Nevertheless, the book held my interest and I kept reading. The story touches a lot of topics but it never gets deeper. It is an easy read with a dark touch that does not get to uncomfortable.

I don’t think the official book description really does this book justice. So I’ll try to do the best I can here.

This book is told along two timelines: Alice Snyder’s from July and Mackenzie a.k.a. Donna’s from August. Both are au pairs working for the Donaldson family at their isolated Scottish manor. You see, Alice was hired as an au pair for the summer but soon disappeared, presumed dead in a swimming accident after her clothes were found abandoned on the beach. Seemingly unfazed, the Davidsons, who include Cato and Ken, their three daughters and Ken’s brother Gray, quickly hired another au pair, “Donna,” whose real name is Mackenzie. Spurred by the reports of Alice’s disappearance, she’s come to find the truth of what happened. But this family definitely has a dark side, and it may just swallow up Mackenzie too.

This book alternates between the two storylines, and each is super interesting. I was really taken with both women’s stories and was hooked with all the suspense and twists that the author threw in there. Because there are some really nice tidbits in there. Things I certainly didn’t see coming.

And the author really does create a great suspenseful atmosphere, right from the beginning. I mean, the story takes place at a near-isolated Scottish manor, inhabited by a family that neither woman knows super well. I mean, come on, that’s practically begging for some creepiness to occur. And from the beginning we know something happens, so we’re really waiting on tip-ties to find out the details. It’s a recipe for suspense greatness!

This one was a great, quick read to start off the new year. I highly recommend it to fans of mystery/thrillers for a jump start to the new year! I greatly enjoyed it!

Alice is an 18 year old American girl who travels to Scotland for her new job as an au pair for the Davidson’s, a family who live in a secluded hunting lodge in the Scottish Highlands. She falls in love with the two younger daughters – Tess and Isabel, whom she spends most of the time with. But the more time she spends at the house, she begins to feel uneasy around the adults – especially Uncle Gray. She becomes friends with the local kids who warn her about the family and tell her to leave immediately.

Alice disappears a month after arriving and is quickly and easily replaced by a new au pair - Donna (aka Melanie). Donna has big shoes to fill. The kids won’t stop talking about Alice and how much they miss her. After noticing many strange happenings, Donna becomes curious and tries to figure out what really happened to Alice.

The book is told from Alice and Donna's point of view. I liked the story line but the writing was a bit slow for me. It didn’t pick up until 35% in and then it died down until about 70% in and this was where all the twist and turns happened. The ending was great though and I'm happy I pushed through the slow parts.

This is a unique story told in day by day format from two people. Alice is an 18 year old from the US who has left home to become an au pair in Scotland. The story starts with her arrival at an old and very large house remotely located.. She disappears suddenly under strange circumstances. Enter Donna as a replacement au pair three days after Alice goes missing. Her motives soon become clear. The adults are all creepy and hiding secrets which Donna is trying to unravel. The terror they each feel translates very well and the book is very hard to put down. I enjoyed this book and would highly recommend it. Thank you NetGalley and Incubator Books for the ARC of this book.

The cover art work really set this up to be a good read, and it really was! The described Scotland with sublime accuracy whilst allowing a sense of foreboding to weave its way in. Secrets and lies and a missing au pair, I thoroughly enjoyed this novel.

The Au Pair was a great book. Alice is 18 years old and decides to work for the Davidsons. She enjoys taking care of the children. I definitely got creepy vibes from the uncle. Alice ends up going missing and they replace her quickly with Melanie who tells them her name is Donna. She decides to figure out what happened Alice. This book was fast paced and interesting. So many twists and turns. I’d definitely recommend this book! Thank you Netgalley, Jane and Inkubator Books for the ARC!

fun little thriller, if not super exceptional! i def would recommend it. thanks for the ARC and the eeriness works well

Thank you NetGalley and Inkubator Books for the eARC.
An American 18-year old girl, Alice, travels to Scotland to start her job as an au-pair for the Davidson family at their remote lodge.
She loves the children, but finds herself nervous about the adults and increasingly anxious in the house. After about a month she disappears.
The new au-pair Donna (aka Melanie) wants to find out what happened to Alice and soon realizes there is something horrifying going on.
I liked both Alice and Melanie a lot and found the other characters (not the children!) absolutely evil.
Great story, difficult to put down, with a surprisingly sweet ending. I.enjoyed it immensely.

Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to receive an ARC of this book!

This is, and I'm not exaggerating, my FAVORITE thriller I've read so far. The book is set in the Scottish Highlands and described with beautiful and alluring imagery, and follows the differing perspectives of two women. Alice Snyder and Melanie McFarlane both make fantastic protagonists, especially because they have such different views of the world and the characters within it. I instantly adored Alice and her youthful and optimistic outlook, but I loved Melanie's snarky attitude just as much. The author does a great job of getting you fully invested in their fates right from the start.

This book does a great job of making you feel like YOU'RE the one in danger, always waiting for something bad to happen and looking too far into everything the characters say. You know that feeling you get when someone's watching you? That's the best way I can describe how this book makes you feel. But in the best way possible! I've always felt that thrillers can sometimes be ruined by being too predictable, but I didn't feel that way about this one.

To top it all off, the ending genuinely made me tear up. I had no idea that I'd get this emotionally attached to the characters. I recognize that I'm ranting at this point so I'll wrap it up, but consider me a super-fan <3

The Au Pair starts off with a well-narrated first chapter, but the story quickly fell off. I struggled to connect with any of the characters, including Alice. By the time I was 10% into the book, not much had happened and I was already losing interest. I ultimately didn't finish this one.

The Au Pair
by Jane Renshaw

Pub Date 28 Jan 2024 by Inkubator Books

I always like books and series featuring au pairs. It’s something I would have loved to have done when I was younger, but for some reasons, I did not. I like the idea of going somewhere new, abroad.

The premise of this book was really interesting. Alice has come from the United States to work for the Davidson family in Scotland. A remote lodge in Scotland, some might say that this sounds romantic. But soon after her arrival, Alice disappeared without a trace.
Melanie arrives to replace Alice. She soon notices that the Davidsons are a little odd and that strange things are happening. Melanie tries to find out the truth about Alice, but is she in danger herself?

This is most definitely a chilling and atmospheric thriller which makes you really think twice about the people you work for.

The pace of the novel was quite good but I had some issues with the structuring, if that makes sense?!
Overall it’s a decent story with a lot of different and well rounded characters. Jane could always write very interesting characters. While this is maybe not my favourite of her books, I did enjoy it. Maybe it’s my issue with remote locations, that’s not a favourite trope of mine.

I would recommend to think about your triggers, maybe there should even be trigger warnings, as this could be an issue for some people. Though it could give away too much of the story, I don’t know.
All in all I would consider this a successful thriller with minor issues. But I did enjoy reading this and will always look out for Jane’s books!

Arc received courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

“The Au Pair” is a thriller/mystery by Jane Renshaw. I really liked the description of this book and that’s what hooked me in. However, I cannot say that I liked the execution of this book. The beginning with Alice’s experiences I found a bit interesting, but Alice was so young and naive that I actually ached for her innocence and being taken advantage of regarding her duties. When Melanie/Donna appeared, I must’ve read something too quickly because I thought for sure she was an undercover police officer - nope, wrong. There’s a number of red herrings (or are they?) and a number of oddities and after a while the twists became twist and twist after twist - which made for exhausting reading (and figuring out). I cannot say that I really liked any of the main characters (though I did like one of the younger sisters), which didn’t make for a fast great read either. The book deals with a bunch of topics and while it would give part of the twists away, I do think a triggers listing would be good (because I was really turned off by something). Also, for such a short book, this took me a surprisingly long time to read.

Great book! Wow! My heart still pounding! This book had everything!! It had high suspense, Action packed, intrigue, mystery, murder, kidnapping, a great who done it, great plot twist, and some crazy twists and turns! The storyline was very interesting and kept me glued to my Kindle!! I thoroughly enjoyed reading this one! I definitely recommend reading this book as it was well worth reading! Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for sharing this book with me!

This one was surprisingly interesting for me. I liked the concept, and the story makes good use of the atmospheric setting.

The employers in the book are intriguing because they behave so strangely. And Gray, of course, was creepy from the get go.

More than the adult characters though, I really liked the way that the three daughters were described and differentiated here, and the parts that they played in the story.

The group of outside teens also added an interesting layer to the storytelling, particularly Erin's reported "encounter" with Gray.

I did find it slightly annoying to constantly switch between Melanie and Alice, but I appreciate that it was because the book was structured that way. Overall, it was an interesting and fast-moving novel that I think many thriller readers would enjoy.

Alice Snyder found a job as an au pair in Scotland. She grew close to the children, but the employers were strange.
She disappeared into thin air.
Her job was immediately advertized and Melanie, calling herself Donna Mackenzie, was employed. She immediately starts looking for Alice.
Why is she so interested in the former employee?

Slightly slow, but gets more interesting as "Donna" gets to know the Davidson family.
I liked her unselfish attitude, and her need to find Alice safe.
Told in two different points of view, Alice, an innocent unworldly girl, and "Donna" a woman who has had a hard life and changed her ways, and become a strong, responsible woman.

This book certainly should make more young people do some research on the families they work for.
I enjoyed the book, but as I say, it was a little slow to begin with.

Thanks to Netgalley and Inkubator Books for the opportunity to read this book.

The Au Pair" by Jane Renshaw is a chilling and atmospheric psychological thriller that masterfully blends suspense, mystery, and a sense of unrelenting dread. Set in the haunting backdrop of a remote Scottish lodge, the story follows Melanie, the new au pair for the Davidson family, as she unravels the disturbing mystery surrounding the disappearance of her predecessor, Alice Snyder.

Renshaw's storytelling is exceptional, capturing the reader's attention from the very first page. The eerie setting of the Scottish lodge is vividly described, creating an oppressive and claustrophobic atmosphere that serves as the perfect backdrop for the unfolding mystery. The sense of isolation and the stark, haunting landscape contribute significantly to the novel's tense and unsettling mood.

The Davidsons are intriguingly portrayed, with their odd behaviors and secretive nature adding layers of complexity to the story. Melanie's interactions with the family, particularly the unsettling Uncle Gray, are skillfully written, with a palpable sense of unease that permeates every encounter. The character of Melanie is well-developed; her curiosity, fear, and determination make her a relatable and compelling protagonist.

The plot of "The Au Pair" is tightly woven, with suspense building steadily as Melanie delves deeper into the mystery of Alice's disappearance. The inclusion of the strange comings and goings at the lodge, the creepy guests, and the mysterious scratch marks in the au pair's bedroom all contribute to a growing sense of paranoia and danger.

Renshaw excels in delivering a story that is both psychologically complex and thrilling. The twists and turns are unexpected and well-executed, keeping the reader guessing until the very end. The revelation of the lodge's horrifying secret and its connection to Alice's fate is both shocking and satisfying.

One of the standout aspects of the novel is its exploration of themes such as trust, deception, and the darkness that can lurk beneath the surface of normality. Renshaw navigates these themes with a deft hand, weaving them seamlessly into the narrative.

In conclusion, "The Au Pair" is a gripping and suspenseful read that will appeal to fans of psychological thrillers. Jane Renshaw has crafted a novel that is not only thrilling but also thought-provoking, leaving a lasting impression on its readers. It's a perfect blend of atmosphere, character development, and masterful storytelling that makes for a truly unforgettable reading experience.

In "The Au Pair" by Jane Renshaw, I regretfully rate it 1 star with a DNF (Did Not Finish). Despite my attempt to engage with the story, I found the characters, especially Alice, to be unlikeable. The author's attempt to portray her innocence came across as cringey, with an excessive use of exclamation points that felt forced rather than quirky. Melanie, initially promising, also fell short of being a likable character. The inconsistent behavior of the mother resembled a pattern seen in another book, "Housemaid." Despite my initial efforts, nothing in the first 25% of the book captured my attention enough to continue the journey.

This book was very gripping, and I enjoyed it from the moment I read the first page! Looking forward to more great books by this author in the future.