This book was quite a slow read which meant that although the premise was good, the book took too long to get going.

I must say, this was a somewhat disappointing book, as the blurb missold it.
It was not that much of a thriller and mystery, more of a contemplative piece.
Which alone I would not mind, but that is not why I picked it up, so it would have to be a pass for me..
Thank you, NetGalley for the ARC!

Set in a wealthy Parisian suburb, this debut novel neatly fits into the "bad nanny" genre. It follows the lives of a group of American au pairs and their families in the aftermath of the death of a child. Told from the perspective of six characters in alternating chapters, it is set during the 2015 terror attacks in Paris.

An au pair is led away in handcuffs after the body of eight years old Julien is found at the bottom of a stairs. . The back story leading up to this point is told from the point of view of three nannies, a French language teacher and Juliens mother and teenage sister.

This is a novel that suffers from serious "bloated book" syndrome, replete with rambling subplots that added little to the main narrative. The association with the terrorist attacks, specifically the Bataclan attack, was clunky, opportunistic and inappropriate in my opinion. None of the characters were particularly likeable and I found myself speed reading through pages of unnecessary and repetitive dialogue. What could have been a good yarn was ruined by the uneven pacing. Much sharper editing is required. A disappointing 2 star read.

Many thanks to @netgalley and @littlebrownbookgroup_uk for the ebook in return for my review.

The caretaker’s- Amanda Bestor-seigal

I’m sorry I didn’t get to read this title and so it expired therefore I cannot give an accurate review. Sorry

Star rating 3***
It took me a few weeks to read this book I think mainly due to a busy life currently. I also think the chapter lengths played a part. The chapters are split in to names (rather than numbers) and you continue with this character for near on 100 pages. As for the book itself I found the storyline interesting and definitely wanted to see what transpired the further on I read. I believe the main plot line of the book was overshadowed by the stories of each character. I think it’s important to understand each character and there background but there was a lot of information I found was a little pointless. The ending was extremely flat and wrapped up within the final 30/40 pages. Despite my review I would recommend this book if you don’t mind long chapters and enjoy getting to know each character in lots of detail.

The caretaker is about au pairs in Paris who are looking after children for rich families. The chapters are very long, first of all it took a while to get into the story. However, as the book continued you go to understand the characters more.

In a wealthy Parisian suburb, an au pair has been accused of murdering her charge.

A number of characters play a role surrounding this tragic event and as the story unfolds through their eyes, we're given a full insight into what happened before and what happened then.

The caretakers was an engrossing look into the lives of a group of female au pairs and the families they worked for. Each chapter was told from a different perspective and while we gained knowledge into the build up of the death, what really hooked me was learning how the women found themselves in Paris and their lives before.

The author shows a very raw, honest and oftentimes ugly side to our human nature and I was here for all of that. It ain't always rainbows and butterflies in Maisons - Larue.

The Caretakers starts with a tragic event in a wealthy Parisian suburb, the story then takes you back through the lives of the people involved. The main characters are all women, they come from different backgrounds, diffierent countries and they all have there own battles.

I didn't really warm to any of the characters, but it was still a pleasant read.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for letting me read The Caretakers.

I requested this book based on the blurb, which sounded really intriguing. Unfortunately I just couldn't get into it, though I tried a few times I only got 10% in and have decided to DNF for now. It is just too slow for me and I couldn't connect with any of the characters. Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for giving me an opportunity to read and review.

The Caretakers by Amanda Bestor-Siegal was a beautifully written book, set in Paris, 2015. When a small crowd gathers outside the Chauvet home in the affluent suburban community of Maisons-Larue, all watching, as the family's American au pair is led away in handcuffs after the sudden death of her young charge. The grieving mother believes the caretaker is to blame, and the neighbourhood is thrown into chaos, wondering who fault it was.
This book was a very interesting read and it did take me a while to get into it. But, when I did I was glad I stuck with it especially as Amanda was a new author to me

I highly recommend this book.

Big thank you to NetGalley and Little Brown Book Group for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.

Not for me. Too much expliaing where I could work it out myself. Not believable. Very repetitive and a terrible saw it coming a mile off ending.

An interesting subject matter. A child dies and an Au Pair is immediately arrested. Unusually, the book gives insights into the world of au pairs and their host families, living in an affluent suburb of Paris. It took me a while to find an engaging character amongst either the au pair fraternity or their mothers. Interestingly, the role of fathers was not examined. Well written.

I so wanted to enjoy this book and give it a good rating but I’m afraid I found it a very difficult read.
It was set in a wealthy Paris suburb and about a group of American au pairs. It starts with the death of a young child and then the stories of each of the au pairs and families they work for and their French teacher are revealed. It took me so long to read each chapter and place all the characters in the story.

A terrible, tragic event has happened in a suburb in the outskirts of Paris. The truth about what happened is unravelled by six women telling their story in the week leading up to the tragedy. A tale about belonging, and family, and community, and finding your place I'm the world.
A well written book, with emotionally charged characters. A little bit of a weak ending for me.

An unexpected thriller of a debut!!!!!! An unbiased look into the lives of au pairs and their host families amongst tragedy and mystery. A must read for this year!!!!!!

I thoroughly enjoyed this one. Told from many different peoples perspectives in turn, we peel back to find more and more secrets in these families and au pairs lives, until we finally get to the bottom of what actually happened on the day that the disaster struck.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for an advanced digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A beautifully written book. With a wonderful insight into the Paris lifestyle. A fabulous debut. I am looking forward to reading more from this author.

I found this to be a decent 3* Good Read.

It's set in Paris and begins with a child being carried out of a house and the arrest of an American Au Pair. The neighbours watch on and lay the blame at either the Au Pair, or, the mother.
It's a book set soon after the terrorist attacks in Paris and so the city is on edge and this nervousness and tension is carried through in the writing of the relationships.

It's quite a complex read as there are many characters and situations and I did find it difficult to stick with.

Overall though, it's an interesting read.

Thanks to NetGalley and Little, Brown Book Group for the opportunity to preview.

Here comes one highly unpopular review.

As you all know, the process of requesting a book for review pre-publication is a fairly simple one. Either you know the author and enjoy their work and you head straight for the request button, or you don't know the author, you read the blurb and it piques your interest and after a bit of deliberation, you hit that request button. The latter was the case for this book. So my request was highly dependent on the blurb.

The blurb promises us a thriller in which a young American woman, au-pairing for an affluent French couple, is accused of killing their child. The title alludes to multiple suspects or witnesses. So, the expectations are set on a domestic thriller/mystery in which there might be multiple suspects. Reasonable deduction, right?

The opening pages were very reminiscent of those of Little Fires Everywhere (in which the fire engines were wailing in the quiet neighbourhood after someone managed to burn a house down. Only in the Caretakers, the fire engines were swapped for police cars). As the first few chapters progressed, I was reminded of the general layout of the Secret History by Donna Tartt. We are presented with an alleged crime, we are still to know what led to it and who actually committed it. So, it wasn't a wild shot to expect an exploration of the characters' landscape with relevance to the alleged crime. The writing was competent enough, detailed enough, to be labeled "literary". I enjoy slow burn book, so I read on. But as the book progressed—and I mean the book in terms of pages not in terms of story—it did a lot of exploring each and every character to the minutest detail without any relevance to what we needed to know— what I needed to know. I started getting the feeling that the characters themselves were irrelevant to the storyline, let alone their expansive backstories. What did Lou have to do with anything? Or Holly? Or even Geraldine, the first character listed in the blurb?

I must say that I had to put the book down and pick up some short stories, thinking that I was having a reading slump. But when I picked the Caretakers back up, I was more confident in my judgment that I wasn't part of the problem. The book was simply plotless. It set the scene for a crime and somehow seemed to forget about it for the most part. Definitely not the Secret History.

It was a classic case of "there's a lot MORE to storytelling than just, well, TELLING". And boy! This book was all about telling and telling and telling!

Many thanks to Little, Brown Book Group and NetGalley for my e-arc.

It's been a few weeks since I finished The Caretakers, and I'm still thinking about it nearly every day. It took me a bit to get into it, but once I did, I was completely hooked. To weave six perspectives through the book so seamlessly is a triumph, all hurtling towards a truly heartbreaking ending - I cannot wait to read what this author writes next.