One of the worst things a parent can go through, your child is missing and you believe you are to blame. Ava is broken since her daughter’s disappearance. Her life is shattered into a million pieces. The day of the tragedy replays in her mind on a constant loop. “What ifs” plague her every thought. Dealing with the unknown is slowly killing her. As the truth of her daughter’s final minutes begin to unfold, events of that horrible day are brought to light and lives are changed forever. This is a heartbreaking story of loss and deceit. “ A terrible act can define us, or change us fundamentally.” Devastation and grief are strong tethers that bind the guilty and innocent in this compelling story of regret. Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really intriguing book well written and steeped in mystery from the start. I didn't see the ending coming, and the final twist turned out not to be the final twist after all, I love it when you think you've got the story all figured out and realise you were wrong!

I haven't read anything by S.E Lynes before, but I have looked through the back catalogue from this author and think I would enjoy them all so will be looking to pick up another in the future.

Many Thanks to the publisher and to NetGalley for the ARC. A solid 4 star read.

This book squeezed my heart from the very first word and by the time I reached The End I could not breathe!

Ava only nipped upstairs for maybe 5 or 10 minutes. You know what it’s like, your child is strapped in the pram safe and you dare to pinch a tiny bit of time for yourself. But those stolen moments will haunt Ava forever because when she comes down, she realises she left the door open and the pram is empty.

I really felt for Ava, the events of that day just went round and round in her head and every time she recalled the events another layer was added. It felt like she was playing the game “I went to market” the whole time.

Susie Lynes really got inside my head with this story. Every twist and every turn were utterly believable. I placed every character under suspicion. A melancholy atmosphere wrapped itself around me. I literally felt I was walking in Ava’s shoes.

I could not have possibly predicted the outcome, and that ending………….it just kept on giving.

Brilliant twisty book from S E Lynes. I really enjoyed the development of all the characters in this book. From the minute that Ava realises her young daughter is not where she left her, strapped into her buggy in the hallway, The book jumps from a year later back to the days following her disappearance. There are some very annoying characters, people I took an instant dislike to which proved to be founded. The ending was not what I expected and loved the book for that reason. There were times where I found the book a little slow but that is my impatience, not the actual book.

(TW for missing children and mental illness)

Oh my goodness. If you are not looking for a heartbreaking story, I would avoid this book.

Ava and Matt’s daughter, Abi, goes missing. Was she kidnapped? Did she drown? A year later, at a housewarming party, secrets about that night begin to be revealed.

This is not the most suspenseful psychological thriller I’ve ever read. The build was slow, the twists weren’t terribly exciting, and there were a couple of characters I ended up despising. The amount of times the book returned to the past seemed too much at first, and the titular “housewarming” didn’t take place until halfway through the novel or so. However, I did give this book four stars on Goodreads because Ava’s heartbreak is so real, and you can’t help but become attached to her. I also appreciated the author’s treatment of Ava’s mental illness.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Bookouture for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Powerful, dark and disturbing. Beautifully written - frantic, poetic and very visual. I was immediately drawn in by the cover. The lights on in the house make me want to go inside and be a fly on the wall, find out who lives there and what they’re hiding behind closed doors.
A missing child is obviously most people’s worst nightmare but for this reason the scenario’s been done lots of times which presents an author with a difficult challenge in coming up with a storyline that feels fresh and plausible, but this book does it so well. I felt so much for Ava, trapped in the memory of that last day and the horrific guilt about leaving Abi on her own downstairs for a few moments.. But as we get to know the other characters it's clear they all have something to hide.
I loved the small cast of characters and claustrophobic setup. Revelations are teased out along the way and just as I thought all that was missing was a big twist, it came along! I'd love to see this on tv

Thank you to the author, publisher, and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I was very excited about this book, but unfortunately, it was very disappointing. Even though this is a heart-wrenching story I didn't connect with the main characters at all. Ava's point of view was so repetitive that at some point, a couple of different chapters felt exactly the same. Losing your child is extremely heartbreaking, and portraying grief and helplessness, in my opinion, it's very hard to do. Since this is my first book from this author, I don't know if the repetitive writing style was an intentional choice just to portray those feelings, but it was not for me.

I would firstly like to thank Netgalley and the publishers for allowing me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

I have always very much enjoyed S.E Lynes' books, but this one was on a whole different level.

Wow. What a read.

I have read quite a few 'missing child' books, and while, yes, of course, they always affect me in someway, installing me with that feeling of dread and emotion, but I don't think any have made me cry like this one did. I'm still in tears now writing this review...

I'm not even a parent; but this whole book had my stomach in knots. I really sympathised with Ava. It's bad enough your child is missing, but to have that level of guilt, knowing that a couple of different decisions could of changed the situation massively - I'd be broken.

I didn't think much of Ava's husband, Matt; but I felt Ava's terror, her guilt, and her utter desperation to find out what's happened to her little girl. Heartbreaking 💔

Yes, this read was daunting, upsetting and truly terrifying, but I think if an author can write in such a way that readers can really connect to the story and the characters, like I did with this read, then that's a sign of a truly phenomenal book!

And that reveal?!?! My heart stopped.

Overall, an outstandingly-written read that will definitely play on your emotions. I absolutely recommend this one, but don't forget the tissues!

The Housewarming
By S. E. Lynes
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

This the saddest book I've read this year! It's so tense and it has a twist at the end that I didn't see coming, I mean, not exactly. I didn't want to put it down and I was deep into this book. Every word since the begging was tense and my heart was wrecked. Everything makes sense but it's still so sad! I definitely recommend it because it's a well written book, full of details and very accurate. It's about guilt, love, motherhood, friendship and neighbors. It's a deep and intense read. I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review

This is a really sad story with a good mystery. It centers on Ava, whose 2-year-old daughter Abi vanishes from her stroller in the doorway of her home while Ava was upstairs. A year passes and Ava can't move on, and regularly beats herself up for the mistake she made of leaving the door open allowing for Abi to get out. The first part of the book is rather slow, and repetitive, as Abi continues to be hard on herself and her husband Matt continues to help her get past her grief and guilt.

Then the neighbors have a housewarming party to show off their house that they have been renovating for the past year- everyone has connections to these neighbors- the wife has become somewhat of a friend to Ava, and Matt's best friend Neil is the builder who worked on the renovations. Ava has to be convinced to go, but when she does, there are a lot of alcohol-infused conversations that make her question what role others had to play in Abi's disappearance.

The book really picks up the pace at the point of the party and follows it through to the end. There are a lot of secrets and confessions and when the truth is revealed, it's really very heartbreaking. Lynes also throws in another twist just when you think you had everything figured out. Though the book started off a little slow for me, the ending made it all worth it and I know this is a story that will stick with me.

Overall, I'd recommend this book, though prepare to feel sad. I have liked everything Lynes has written and this is no exception. Thanks to Netgalley for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

#TheHousewarming #NetGalley
Thanks NetGalley, Bookouture and S.E. lynes for an ARC to review.
Release date 23rd October.
One year ago, Ava had to live every mother's worst nightmare or maybe worse.
What could be worse, the knowing or the not knowing?
Final brutality or hope's cruel mirage? Living and reliving the day that changed her life forever, Ava is driving herself crazy. If only she locked the door, If only she didn't check her social media feeds, If only she went directly to the river...endless regrets that leaves her an empty shell of the woman she once was.
Watching herself from outside, yelling at herself daily, she can't stop living that fatal day..thinking she knew every single detail about it..torturing herself with every decision she shouldn't have done..sod should!
A year later in her neighbor's housewarming party, she started observing that day from a completely new angle.
Who can she trust? Do we all lie to protect ourselves and what we have? Would you rather do the right thing and save a life or take the easy way out and save what you have?
A heartbreaking, emotionally heavy book..my heart broke for Ava and Matt.

Oh my.....this book has left me heartbroken.
I think it has caused me to have every range of emotion and I’m now exhausted.
Ava and Matt’s daughter Abi is missing. Ava blames herself for leaving Abi strapped in to her pushchair whilst she nips upstairs - when she comes down the door is open and Abi is gone.
A year later their neighbours throw a housewarming party to show off their renovated home. Matt persuades Ava to go after locking herself away for a year grieving after her missing daughter. She doesn’t want to face the whole street, she doesn’t want their sympathy for Abi’s disappearance but she reluctantly goes along.
At the party small snippets of information are revealed, which alone mean nothing, but once Ava pieces them together she realises despite living the worst day of her life over and over again for the past year she knows nothing.

To say I really enjoyed this book feels wrong because the subject of this book is every parents worst nightmare. I feel exhausted. Like I have empathised with every emotion Matt and Ava have been through. Secrets exposed, lies revealed and finally, answers as to what happened to Abi. This author has an ability to picture every scene and feel every emotion and I’m my experience that is a rarity.
This book comes highly recommended by me and I will be looking out for more novels by this author.

Thanks you to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I have started reading the book and did my best to keep going, however the book did not engage me enough to read anything past page number 10. Perhaps the plot got more exciting later on in the book, however I did not get there.

This story is every mother’s nightmare. Ava only left toddler daughter Abi for a little while. She was safe, strapped in her pushchair in the hall, so why not escape for a few minutes, have a look at Facebook – what every mother craves. Except she wasn’t safe. When Ava went back downstairs, the outside door was opened, and Abi was gone. Ava relives that morning every day of her life, as does Mark, her husband, and neighbours and godparents, Bella and Neil. Ava, though, blames herself totally as she must have been the one who left the door open, mustn’t she?
A year later and the posh neighbours are having a housewarming. Everyone wants to see what they have done to the house. Mark persuades Ava they should go along for a little while with Neil and Bella. That night, Ava hears something that will cause her to think again about what happened that fateful day and gradually the story unravels (no spoilers!)
This is a dark read about grief and secrets and the impact of other people’s actions. It is a sad story rather than a racing psychological thriller but still addictive - I was with Ava every step of the way as she tried to understand what had happened to her daughter and as her world unravelled even further. I so wanted everything to be ok for her.
This book was incredibly well written, the build up and tension was just right, everything we expect of this author. I didn’t think it had quite the punch and pathos of Can You See Her or The Lies We Hide so this was a 4**** for me – but still thoroughly recommended!
Thank you to the publisher and Net Galley for this advance copy in return for an honest review. Review will go on Amazon etc on publication day.

Thanks to NetGalley and Bookoutre for the opportunity to preview this book.

I found it a difficult read, partly due to the subject matter, being the possible abduction of a child - and this was laboured as a point over the first few chapters and also the plodding way the story was told. It just didn’t engage me, I’m afraid and so I found myself zoning out at times.

It’s a slow paced read and I’m afraid, overall, not for me. I have given a 2* OK read as, despite my struggle with it, it’s not a bad read and I’m sure it will find its audience.

S.E. Lynes is one of my favourite authors and I’ve never been disappointed by any book she had written. This I think has topped all the previous books my miles!

I loved the plot in this book. It intrigued me from the beginning. The not knowing what happened to your child must be crippling. The relationship between the characters was well written and I really enjoyed the suspicion surrounding what actually happened to Abi.

Fabulous read!

I was so excited to get another S.E. Lynes book and when I was granted The Housewarming, I cleared my schedule and made a date with this book. Let me tell you, it was AMAZING and a true perfection of a thriller in the style that is S.E. Lynes.
There was everything a psychological thriller should have and this time Ms. Lynes really messed with our emotions too. My heartstrings were definitely pulled. I recommend just opening this book and diving in. Don't read anything about it first..just get ready for an "up all night, can't put it down kind of read".
I would also like to say 5 stars for the cover we well.
Thank you to the author, publisher and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

A brilliantly written intriguing read. I can’t imagine the pain of having a child go missing. Matt and Ava’s story feels so raw and real. I got totally caught up in their lives and the emotions of the story.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

Wow. Just wow. If physiological thriller is your cup of tea then look no further for your next read.
Started this book last night and have finished it already I really couldn’t put it down. Fabulous writing, great characters, brilliant plot and a great twist at the end. What more could you ask for?
The story starts by introducing us to husband and wife Ava and Matt who have a toddler daughter, sometimes mischievous Abi. What parent hasn’t had that feeling of dread that something could happen to their child, but what could possibly go wrong with a sleeping Abi left strapped in her buggy while Ava nips upstairs for a few minutes.
As a parent I felt the raw emotion and pain that Ava must have felt coming down to discover her daughters buggy empty and the front door open. The writing in this first section is raw and so well written that I was holding my breath throughout this and for much of the book.
The story depicts the inevitable police search and the family a year on from the fateful day.
A complex and twisty novel sees Ava and Matt stretched t the limits of their relationship and questioning each other and those around them. The ending came as a complete surprise and I loved the last few chapters as the author skilfully wove the tale to its twisty conclusion.
Highly recommended and the best of the books I have read by this author, all of which I would also recommend.
Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Actual rating 4.5 stars

I would imagine most parents have experienced that heart stopping moment when they lose sight of their child, either in the playground or out shopping, although the scenarios are endless in their variations. It certainly happened for me when my own daughter was about three years old but thankfully hers was a disappearance resolved quickly unlike the situation Ava and Matt find themselves in. On a ordinary weekday day morning Ava and two year old Abi are saying goodbye to Matt as he cycles off to his job as an architect. Intending to go and feed the ducks in the nearby Thames, mother and daughter first return home to clean up Abi’s knees and hands where she’s fallen out of her buggy. All sorted with Abi safe and secure in her pushchair, one hand clutching the bread for the ducks, the other clutching beloved toy Mr Sloth, a gift from her godparents, Ava takes advantage of the opportunity to dash upstairs, retrieve her phone and go to the bathroom. Heading downstairs, having been waylaid by the urge to scroll through her phone and gather some laundry, Ava finds the pushchair empty and the front door wide open. So begins a frantic search for the missing girl with Ava increasingly out of her mind with worry as precious minutes tick by. Combing every inch of the house with no success she continues her search outside, her desperation mounting. Ignoring the new next door neighbours, the Lovegoods, presuming they have left for the day, she then knocks on best friends Neil and Bella’s door in the vain hope Abi has toddled off there. Assuming they too have already departed for work Ava then widens her search beyond the confines of their street hoping and praying no harm has come to her child. With no sighting of Abi, Ava then contacts her husband and together they realise the police will have to become involved. This is a storyline to fill your heart with dread as the search for Abi gathers pace, yet yields no positive result. What has happened to this little girl is anyones guess.

The author excels at expressing Ava’s every emotion as her life implodes around her, caught in no man’s land between the present and the past. As the days slowly pass the case is not officially closed yet with no new leads the presumption that Ava has drowned does not bring closure for this family. It’s as if the author has crawled inside Ava’s mind articulating her innermost thoughts with an incisiveness that astounded me. Time for the Atkins has been forever suspended in that moment prior to Abi’s disappearance although it’s fair to say the focus is mainly on Ava as a mother bereft, riddled with guilt and what ifs. What if she hadn’t left Abi in her buggy in the hallway whilst she grabbed her phone, spending precious minutes scrolling through her feed, grabbing a few moments of peace. What if she’d shut the front door properly whilst upstairs gathering the laundry. What if she’d realised Abi had learned to unfasten the clasp on her buggy? What if.....what if...what if...is a constant refrain, ticking like a metronome, marking time between before and after. I loved the author’s use of this analogy given Ava is/was a piano teacher and her recognition of the tiny ways in which all mothers guilty snatch a few moments to themselves whilst their precious charges are either asleep or suitably entertained. We can all relate to that which is why this storyline is so very realistic. You can’t dismiss the devastating effect Abi’s disappearance has on Matt and friends/godparents Neil (Nee Nee as Abi affectionately calls him) and Bella. Besides Ava, it is Neil’s relationship with the little two year old that I found so heartwarming and so all the more heartbreaking for its loss. All lives have been irrevocably changed but it’s Ava’s role as a mother who’s failed in her duty to keep her daughter safe that I found myself most moved by.

As life loses all vibrancy, the colour leeched out of every day, save for baby Fred’s existence, I feared for Ava’s sanity and her marriage. It’s only when an invite to the Lovegoods housewarming party is received that this broken woman reluctantly faces the prospect she’ll never know for certain what has happened to her daughter and that life must continue for the sake of her second child.
Every fibre of Ava’s being is taut with apprehension prior to the party. Everyone else is ridiculously curious to see how months of building work has transformed this home into an architectural delight. Ava’s interaction with friends Neil and Bella is painfully awkward, and I could sense the gaping hole Abi has left in their lives as all four tiptoe around each other treating Ava as the fragile figure she has become. It’s a party in which alcohol will inevitably loosen tongues, a catalyst for some shocking unexpected truths that will further rock the foundations of these peoples lives. The pace nicely picks up here giving the impetus the storyline needs since at this point it is in danger of becoming repetitive in terms of portraying over and over Ava’s state of mind. You can almost hear the pop and crackle of Ava’s synapses firing up as she braves the attention of all those at the Lovegoods party. There is a definitive moment when I went “aahh so this is where the author is taking us” but I still wasn’t fully prepared for everything else to come. Instead prepare yourself for the most dramatic of denouements.

I loved that the author has chosen to place the emphasis on Ava and Matt, their friends and neighbours rather than relying on a police investigation to propel the narrative forward.
The Housewarming is an emotionally charged read that threatens to engulf the reader in tidal waves of sadness yet I couldn’t put it down. I yearned for closure for Ava, my heart aching for her every step of the way as she struggles through a situation that forms the basis of every parents worst nightmare. It’s a storyline where relationships and friendships are severely pushed to their limits, a storyline where the tension is constant. For me the strength of this domestic drama lies in the sublime writing at the very beginning which drew me into Ava and Matt’s world without little Abi. Not quite deserving of 5 stars in my opinion but so very nearly there! Reading The Housewarming, however harrowing the content has given me the desire to read more from this author. If you’ve yet to discover S E Lynes then be sure to add The Housewarming to your list! My thanks as always to the publisher and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read in exchange for an honest review.