A bit of a slow start but soon became a gripping read.
Well written, if not particularly likeable characters.
A worthy four star read for me.
My thanks to netgalley and the publisher for my copy.

This is great from Hayley Smith. I was hooked from the start. A real page turner. Lots of people keeping secrets that combine to ultimately make everything worse.

Hayley is a new author for me and I really looked forward to this one. It did not disappoint! Such a great thriller and something many parents use for childcare! I really enjoyed it and didn’t see the twists coming at times! A really solid, well written thriller!

Kim, Rhiannon, Jarvis, Nina, and Stacey form a childcare circle, each watching all of the children one day per week. The girls are suspicious about Jarvis watching their children. They witness Kim doing a few suspicious things, making them think she is not the person she says she is. Nina plans a weekend away for them. The return to a seaside town from their past. Rhiannon, Stacey, and Nina competed in a dance competition when they were younger. For Kim, it was a place in which she lost her brother. Who is really behind the trip? And what is the motive? Things go wrong right away. Secrets come out, Someone ends up dead. Good suspense in this book; good twists on how some of these people were connected and never knew it. Shocking shocking ending for all of these characters!

I could not wait to read this book it was such a unique thriller. I was not disappointed it was extremely well written with such fantastic characters. It was filled with many twists and turns everyone has a secret that they don’t want the others to find out and will go to extreme lengths to keep it hiden. It was a fast paced thriller with a very surprising ending.

A childcare Circle the perfect solution for working parents. When a group of parents organise that each day one of them will take the children so the others can work it seems like a great idea. All is going well that a weekend away is organised for the parents to get to know each other better. But all these parents have secrets who can you trust ?and who have they trusted with there children.

This was a fantastic gripping thriller which I will be recommending to everyone. Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to review this.

I finished this book with an impressed laugh, and an “OMG”. The ending! OMG indeed. A couple of other things I said out loud (to my cats) while reading this are “yeah, you need to just be her friend so you don’t kill yourself” and “she’s going to get herself killed!”.

This centers around people in a childcare circle, where five parents and their children each spend a day taking care of the others, so they don’t have to pay exorbitant childcare costs. Our five parents/children are…

Stacey, daughter Coralie
Nina, son Bobby
Rhiannon, daughter Freya
Kim, daughter Dulcie, and
Jarvis, son Hayden.

The synopsis lays this one out pretty clearly; this group is going to go on a weekend trip together for some fun and bonding. Nina found a seaside house that a friend was willing to let them stay in for free, so off to Kittiwake House they head.

I’d love to say more, but I can’t. Well, I could, but I won’t - there is too much to spoil in this one. The entire book was an entertaining little thriller, but the ending was fantastic. It was starting to wrap up, and I thought “yep, I knew it”, but then the ACTUAL ending floored me with a huge twist I never even considered. Four stars!

(Thank you to Bookouture for inviting me on this book tour. “The Childminder” is slated to be released on September 18, 2024.)

I think it's a very frequently occurring problem for families where both parents have a job or for single parents with a job. Where to find a childminder you can trust and count on?

That's why I find this a very good solution to share the task with 4 other parents, each taking care of the 5 kids during a few hours every day of the working week. This way it gives each of the parents a few hours to take care of certain things around the house or elsewhere and you know your child is taken care of.

What is buried on the inside very often does not show on the outside and if you could have known you would have tried to work out another solution...

This is a story about parents supporting each other...

This is a story about about hidden secrets bound to come to the surface...

This is a story about a silly thing going terribly wrong...

This is a story about life long friends who will always have your back...

The author leads me down a certain path.  The question is did I follow it all the way or was there something niggling my brain? I wonder how you felt about it. :)

I loved this brilliant story. I felt a little heartbroken too. I adored the premise and all the background stories. I loved the whole package. 5 stars

Thank you

The childminder was the latest psychological thriller that I read. It was a great ride. It was filled with lots of twists and turns that kept me guessing until the very end.

To save money, five people share minding each other's children.
They each get an anonymous note - someone claiming to know their secrets.
They go away together with the children for a weekend, but one of them does not return home.

Twisty and twisted. Your past will always come back to haunt you.
Can't say I liked the characters in the book, except the feisty old lady, Mrs Coates. I was more than impressed with her protecting what was hers!
I suspected the ending, and I was right.
The book is engrossing, and quite the page turner.

Thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for the opportunity to read this book.

Slow to start but keep reading and the pace will gradually pick up speed. Perfect for fans of Nicole Trope. Surprise ending but i am not disappointed.