Having really enjoyed Michelle Frances's previous book The Girlfriend I couldn't wait to read The Temp.
Carrie and Adrian are an extremely successful married couple, both being involved in the TV industry.
They have always agreed that they would never have children but Carrie unexpectedly finds herself pregnant and she finds she wants to keep it and she lives in hope that Adrian will come round but when she gives birth to a son Rory she finds he doesn't want anything to do with him. Carrie has to take maternity leave and so enters The Temp, Emma! Emma is a 24 year old script writer and it soon becomes clear she isn't what she seems.
This story did not go the way I expected and I didn't see the ending coming. A thoroughly enjoyable read!!!

Thank you very much to NetGalley and Michelle Frances for the arc of The Temp my review is honest and unbiased in any way,

I really struggled with The Temp. I persevered as I hate not reading books to the end but I was just not enjoying it so I gave up. Sorry not for me.

Carrie is a producer on a big TV show. Her husband, Adrian, just won a BAFTA for his last hugely popular show, and they have big dreams for the future success of their husband and wife team. Predictably, all doesn't go to plan and Carrie falls pregnant. Although they had agreed they would never have children, she wants to keep the baby. Sadly, Adrian isn't so keen but agrees to "go along with it" because it's what Carrie wants. It's not hard to guess that there will be issues.

Anyway, all of this means that Carrie will need time away from her job as a producer, and the company hires someone to help out - Emma, the infamous Temp. Emma really wants the job, and is very keen to please. Carrie has an instant dislike of Emma, and this only grows when it becomes clear that Emma is great at Carrie's job, and everyone loves her and values her opinions. Especially Adrian.

Initially I thought this would be a very predictable read, and very much like other books I've read where a younger model comes in and tries to take over. But that isn't Emma's agenda. She actually wants Carrie to like her, and she has her own reasons for being there, which are a mystery to everyone.

The writing of this book is actually pretty good. It is completely unpretentious, and honest, which works well for the characters. It makes them seem real and down to earth, which when the story is based in a London TV production company could have been hard to achieve. The story unfolds nicely and I failed to predict most of the twists and turns, of which there are many.

All in all, I would say this is not a particularly memorable book or a literary masterpiece, but it was enjoyable to read. I got through it quickly because it was easy to read and I liked picking it up of an evening. And that's really all I want in a book.

After reading “The Girlfriend” I was very excited to get the chance to receive my copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for a review.

When producer and writer couple Adrian and Cassie discover they are going to be having a baby, they employ Emma as a temp script writer. Unfortunately Carrie is alone at home with a crying baby, a husband who is a reluctant father and the need to go back to work as she does not trust Emma!!

This is definitely not a black and white story, throughout you never really know who the bad guy is, liked the mystery and the ending wasn’t what I thought it would be.

So looking forward to Michelle Francis’s next book, I swear she could rewrite the phone book and make that into the next bestseller!!

I absolutely adored The Girlfriend when I read it earlier this year so I was interested to see whether lightning could strike twice. Whilst I didn't find this quite as gripping as The Girlfriend it is still a very gripping read full of twists and turns.

I loved The Girlfriend by the same author and was really excited to read this one too. I didn't enjoy it quite as much but it was still a quite read. I was fascinated by Emma's character, why she was behaving as she was and what lengths she was prepared to go to. I wouldn't say I particularly liked her character but I think that was the idea for a lot of the book. I enjoyed Carrie's character and felt sorry for her for large bits of the plot. The twist was a bit of a shocker, really didn't predict that as the reason for Emma's behaviour! A really good read full of suspense and drama. I'll definitely be looking out for more from Michelle Frances based on the two books I've read so far!

This is a very average psychological thriller without much psychology or even thrills. I found the TV production setting interesting but there were too many unsympathetic characters and unlikely plot twists to make me care very much about the ending. It took me over 2 weeks to read this as I had no sense of wanting to know what happened at the end.

A great read with a good storyline kept me hooked from the beginning, an interesting twist at the end and book came to a satisfying conclusion

Another great thriller from the author of the girlfriend.
A différent story that I found a little harder to get into, but well worth a quick read.

I started off a bit bored with the book as it was similar to a previous series that had been on UK tv then I started to get a bit more curious and interested and I persevered to the end which wasn’t what I was expecting . All in all it was an ok book but nothing special

This was the first book I have read by this author and by and large, I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the detail about the production of a TV series and the new girl seemingly trying to take the place of the older more established woman doing her dream job. However, I did feel that the later parts of the story were too far-fetched and the twist at the end was just introduced to tie the ends up and I didn't feel that it was particularly well done. Overall, however, I did enjoy it. 3 1/2 stars.

I have read this authors other book thoroughly enjoying it and this one certainly didn’t disappoint. It is set around writers and directors of a tv show so was unique to other psychological thrillers. It had a few twists and turns and I really liked how it ended. Great book I would recommend.

This book centres on Airian and his wife Carrie who are both high flying in their chosen careers in production and screenwriting.

Carrie finds out she is pregnant and it puts an enormous strain on their relationship. Emma comes into their lives as the temp who covers Carrie’s maternity leave. She soon becomes involved in their lives both professionally and privately but something is not quite right. I was intrigued throughout wondering what her connection and motivation was.

I found the book difficult to get into at first and some parts dragged on for me. The plot itself was fantastic and although I was initially skimming pages I was hooked half way through and wanted to read to the end. There were some major twists and turns which when I finished the book left me feeling glad I had read it. Definitely an unique original story line with a great ending.

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for my chance to read this unique book.

Thanks for the opportunity for letting me read this book before publication. I really enjoyed it.
Carrie and Adrian had won a bafta for their screenplay, everything was wonderful, then Carrie became pregnant.
The golden couple fell apart. Adrian did not want children, Carrie did. They got Emma to help during the pregnancy and during maternity leave. But Emma was not all you thought she was, and truth came out about who really did all the work for generation rebel.
A very exciting and thrilling story.

This book stated off really well. The exploration of the working relationship between Emma and Carrie was really well done. The struggle that Carrie feels between not wanting to relinquish her hard-won role to a younger woman whilst simultaneously wanting to champion new talent felt very realistic. Emma is similarly wrestling with the desire to impress, but not wanting to step on anyone's toes. The fact that neither woman adequately voices her feelings and worries leads to miscommunication, misunderstandings and a tense atmosphere that is only heightened by the unscrupulous husband Adrian. Just how unscrupulous he is comes to light later in the book and I was really hoping that he got his comeuppance.
This would have been more than enough for a good psychological thriller, and I was really enjoying reading the book. I then felt that the book started to add new elements that didn't really need to be there. The character of Elaine was given a suddenly prominent scene that I felt was unnecessary and an additional plot twist added quite near the end of the book seemed to come from nowhere and seemed a convenient way to wrap everything up.

My thanks go to the publishers and net galley for the copy in return for an honest review.

Like one of those fairground rides that starts gently then jolts you, again and again, relentlessly forwards. There are plenty of reasons why I should not have loved this novel - the absence of a truly sympathetic character; the sometimes unbelievable (though excellently structured) plot; the 100 plus chapters, many seeming like nothing more than an artifice to keep you reading 'one more'. Yet I found the novel weirdly compelling, and hugely enjoyable. A thriller with an imperfect but rapidly beating heart!

This story starts off a little slow, but the setting of behind the scenes on a big budget BBC drama draws you in and before you know it the pace picks up and the twists begin. Some are a little predictable, but many are not, especially the ending.

I enjoyed the POV changing between Carrie and Emma, as Carrie was a pretty straight forward, easy to like character, but Emma was far more mysterious and was hiding a number of secrets.

Very enjoyable if you like psychological thrillers with plenty of twists.

A clichéd storyline with an unexpected ending.

Carrie and her husband Adrian work together as producer and scriptwriter in the TV industry. They are high flyers and at the top of their profession. Then Carrie becomes pregnant – to the annoyance of her husband – and a replacement has to be found for her. This is Emma, the ‘Temp’, who arrives to take her place and immediately fills her position in every way.

This has been the theme of many books and films, and The Temp is a psychological thriller of the same genre. It soon becomes apparent that Emma is extremely good at her job and Carrie, having given birth, finds herself an outsider. Adrian is delighted with his new assistant but fails to realise Emma has her own reasons for wanting to get to know Adrian and Carrie, and all is not what it seems.

This book has many potentially interesting themes - the dilemma of a mother and baby juggling demands of work and home, the panic of the writer with ‘writer’s block’, ambitious and demanding parents and the greed and ruthlessness within the TV industry. Although the plot has plenty of tension, the three main characters are not particularly likeable - Adrian is utterly selfish, Carrie seems blind to her husband’s flaws and Emma is fundamentally unhinged and neurotic. There is a surprising twist at the end, but the final chapters left many unanswered questions and weren’t really believable.

Michelle Frances, a former TV executive, knows her background and writes well, but to maintain the tension and excitement, she has stretched the plausibility of this story too far.

Jane

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.

Carrie and Adrian are a television power-couple; he a screenwriter and she a producer who is actually producing Adrian's next show. Carrie who is in her 40's falls pregnant despite Adrian being clear that he never wanted a child but seeing this as her last chance to be a mother decides to have the baby. Carrie is then involved in appointing her replacement who will take over from her during her maternity leave. 24 year old Emma is the successful appointment and it is not long before Carrie is feeling pushed out by her 'replacement' and unhappy in her marriage with a husband who seems uninterested and unloving - all whilst dealing with the demands of a newborn baby.
I did enjoy this book although not as much as I enjoyed the author's previous book 'The Girlfriend' as this one is slightly slower-paced and more of a slow-burner however the pace and tension did pick up in the second half of the book towards a neat ending with a couple of surprise twists.
All in all though a good, solid read and I'm looking forward to the next book by this author - 4 stars and many thanks to Netgalley and publishers for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Taut and twisty, I really enjoyed this one! No one wants to be replaced by someone better then them!