I'm getting tired of books that start by describing the aftermath of a horrific crime and then slowly unfolding the events of the weeks before it. I get why so many writers do it but I'm certain that there are other ways to create drama. Especially as the technique only drags out the inevitable. It means that, when you figure out the truth early on, it's a painstakingly slow reading experience with very little payoff.

<em>The Caretakers </em>opens with the death of a young boy and the arrest of his American au pair. The event causes quite a stir in the affluent suburban community of Maisons-Larue. It's a community of families who hire foreigners to watch their children as they enjoy lavish lifestyles. The kind of housewives who love gossip. Needless to say, news of the event quickly spreads.

Through the stories of six women, we learn what happened in the lead up to the tragic moment. We see the weeks prior from the viewpoint of women personally connected with the family of the accused. There's Geraldine, the teacher schooling the au pairs in speaking French; Lou and Holly, two au pairs; Charlotte, the boy's mother; Nathalie, her sulky teenage daughter, and Alena, the accused. What can we discover about these women and their involvement in proceedings?

I had high hopes for this book but was a little disappointed. It's a concept that we've seen a thousand times before and one that has been executed better. We do learn a lot about these women but I didn't really care about them. I couldn't escape the feeling that this was all just dragging out the inevitable reveal. Plus, these are all stereotypical characters that appear in countless other books. The troubled youth who escapes her family by moving to another country. The rich girl pretending to be poor. The bored housewife who hates her husband. None of these characters are interesting enough to warrant the time we spend getting to know them.

Then there's the fact that the story isn't even that interesting. Yes, the writer opens with the death of a child which many will deem dark and daring. As the story goes on, it becomes pretty obvious what's going on and who is responsible. Unfortunately, when you do figure it out, you'll still have over half the book to go. Meaning it's quite a slog to get to the end. Yes, the author throws a few references to the terrorist attacks that took place in Paris and Brussels but it doesn't really go anywhere. It's basically just included to give everyone a 'life is fleeting ' revelation. It feels shoehorned in.

This is an ambitious book and I do see what she was trying to achieve. However, there's just too much going down. You're slowly wading through so much detail but it's adding very little to the story. I normally love a character study but this was some basic exploration. Everything is surface level and all very clichéd. Just because you write a lot, it doesn't mean there's any depth there. It's a shame because this could have been so good. <em>The Caretakers</em> is trying to be more like <em>Nothing Can Hurt You</em> but it's just kind of dull and forgettable.

I felt this book was a real anomaly. The writing is beautifully crafted and each of the six women characters, flawed though they all are, developed empathetically.

The problems I had (in my view) were several: the chapters were too long and indistinct, sometimes rambling; there were too many characters entering the story (& for example with each au-pair comes the children they look after, the parents, the neighbours, their and sometimes the backgrounds of these too; the ending didn’t resolve my queries and I felt, cut off the story.

For some people, I feel sure this immersive and character driven story will be ideal. It clearly depicts what I imagine a life to be like for American au-pairs in Paris, facing difficulties with language, culture, expectations, living in someone else’s home.

Each character is carrying issues from their past and are not sure how these have shaped who they are now, who they want to be and the difficulties they are facing.

A clever plot, showing the ‘mystery’ at the start from many angles and build ups. However, I felt this mystery was overwhelmed by the depths of the characters and their stories.

Sadly for me overall a 3🌟read as I spent too long ‘outside’ the plot, trying to remember who was who and connecting the threads.

I absolutely adored this book, it has answered so many questions! I always wondered why, myself, a mum of three unruly children , felt so shabby and harassed on a French beach in the 1990’s. The French women looked elegant, slim and tanned, they relaxed and didn’t seem to pay their children any attention, I was like a mad woman, trying to keep all my children in my vision, it was hard work!
Now the secret is out, the au pair took the strain, and the mothers had no guilt in handing over their children to young students, who had a desire to travel the continent cheaply, and learn languages, and they would take jobs looking after children, some had a rudimentary knowledge of First Aid, and cooking for infants, others learnt on the job.
This book starts with the death of a child, and the subsequent arrest of an au pair. We then learn via friends of the girl , the circumstances that lead up to this shocking event, all is not black and white. It is more a tragic, cautionary tale, than a murder mystery, but the setting of France, Paris and the way of life there, brought back such happy memories for me, it was a joy to read.
I teach childcare students, some have been eagerly making plans to travel, now lockdown appears to be over, and I have throughly recommended this book to the entire class.
The most telling phrase in this book was, ‘ The French are different, because they are French’. So true!
Many thanks to Netgalley and the publishers, Little, Brown Book group, for my digital copy in exchange for my honest, unsolicited review.
I have given this a five star rating. I will leave reviews to Goodreads and Amazon.

A story told from the POV of six American au pairs working in upmarket Paris It starts off with a fatal accident and before I knew it I was drawn deeper into the plot. Some of the characters backstory was too detailed for my liking but overall the book is beautifully written.

I was glad I'd read this AFTER my daughter finished a couple of years as an au pair in France. Fortunately she had a great experience, not like the dysfunctional families in this book. This would be enough to put anyone off - none of these girls were treated as part of the family and it was just horrible. An uncomfortable read, but not as gripping as the beginning led you to believe. A sad read. #netgalley #thecaretakers

Set in Paris the book introduces an array of characters. Au Pairs, their host families and other involved characters. In between a domestic drama and a thriller the story starts with the arrest of one of the au pairs. An interesting, unique story set in the wealthy suburbs of Paris. A good read.

A gripping and beautifully written insight into a tragic event. Following all but two of the characters once throughout the book it did not detract from giving a fully realised character for them all. At times this book was so heartbreaking I wanted to put it down but the writing was so compelling I couldn't.

I found aspects of each character disturbing and at times abhorrent but each of the characters I also felt sorry for and wanted to befriend.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would read more from this author.

A really good debut novel. A lot of characters to juggle but done expertly. The moving back and forward in time was equally well managed and although must have been a challenge to maintain was carried off well. Similar in ways to the other Parisian novel of 2022 - Lucy Foley's The Paris apartment. Another great novel this year with the death of a child at its heart is also comparable - Edel Coffey's Breaking Point.
Well written characters and well-portrayed setting - satifying read.

Thank you to Little Brown Books and NetGalley for the ARC

The Caretakers are a group of au pairs in an affluent suburb outside Paris. The novel explores the lives of three of them - Lou, Holly and Alena. All are troubled and looking for a new start, but all have brought their baggage with them. The French families who host them are brittle and broken too, and the novel explores how the tragedy which started the novel, has come to pass.

This novel had constant echoes in my head of Leila Slimani's Lullaby, although it is a totally different work. It's extremely atmospheric, capturing both the bourjois slightly sterile suburb of Maisons-Larue and the seedier night scene of Paris beautifully. It's also a real page-turner. The pace never slackens. There is a cast of really strong female characters who are all absolutely fascinating.

The structure is not without flaws though. For a start, I felt the author didn't know quite whose story she really wanted to tell. As a result we have too much of Alena's back story, but we end with Lou. We have really interesting early focus on Charlotte, but then she pretty much disappears. In actual fact this may have worked as a longer novel, as the women characters were all fascinating and had story arcs of their own and the ending of the novel felt a little rushed. Nevertheless, a great novel and I would look for more from this new author.

This story follows six women in an affluent part of Paris in the lead up to and during the aftermath of the tragic death of a young French boy while in the care of his American au pair.

I’m not sure if this is a thriller or a mystery but I didn’t feel that anything particularly thrilling or mysterious happened. There was a lot of build up and long chapters on each characters back story that I didn’t feel was necessary. The book was full of complicated, cold characters all trying to bury their feelings and unwilling to do anything to help themselves or others and I didn’t find any of them particularly likeable.

The synopsis sounded intriguing and I expected to love this book but overall it was just too long-winded and a bit of a slog to get through.

I hate writing critical reviews, but I always vowed to myself that I would be honest about my views on books. Unfortunately, this book just isn't for me.

This read was difficult to get into, I was not grabbed due to the slow burn. I could not relate to the characters as there appears a lot to be going on with 6 women, all with their own stories making this confusing in parts. The actual plot and purpose of the book seemed to get lost within it all. It didn't flow well for my personal preference, making the book drag in several places.

The conclusion was predictable and disappointing and despite the high hopes for this and having a great concept for a fantastic story, this simply didn't deliver.

I haven't read any books by this author before and although I wouldn't necessarily go looking for her work after reading this one, I would still be inclined to read another to see if it was just this read that didn't hit the spot for me!

The Caretakers by Amanda Bestor-Siegal 🇫🇷

Ad-pr product: Thank you to Little Brown and Netgalley for my arc ebook of this novel. I've chosen a good one here...

The Caretakers is set in France, the suburbs of Paris, amidst the terrorist attacks of 2015. Alena, a Czech American au pair, is arrested when her eight year old charge is killed and as the plot unfolds we realise what must have happened. We read the POVs of the other au pairs Holly and Lou as well as Charlotte Chauvet and the teenage Nathalie who are the deceased's family. Geraldine, as the au pairs' French teacher is embroiled too and we read how Lou and Alena both stayed with her for a while.

This was intriguing and reminded me of Sarah Moss, who leads the reader to one event and its conclusion, via the past and present of so many characters. Being an au pair sounds absolutely dreadful but all the characters in this novel gravitate towards these positions, with white, middle class, privileged families, for their own issues and family ties and it was interesting to unravel it as a reader.

This was brilliantly written and I would give it 4.5 cups of tea.

A look into a different life
From the beginning of the story, I was transported to Paris and its customs and was totally immersed inside a world of au pairs I knew nothing about. I wanted to keep reading to learn more about the network of families and au pairs and resolve the mystery of what happened to the 9-year-old boy. The book started with an introduction from the author which I liked as it gave some background to the story and how the idea materialized.

The Caretakers - a poignant name for au pairs - girls/young women who have come to France from various countries to live with host families and look after their children. Some of the mothers have a job while others just seem to not want to look after their own children. They entrust their children to young women who are there for various reasons.
This tale begins with the arrest of a young woman, Alena, when the young boy in her charge dies in the house. The story then moves away from Alena and explores other au pairs - their reasons for being in France, their relationships with their host parents and the children. It left me quite conflicted at times as the children became, in some cases, closer to their au pair than to their parents. Some of the parents were very unlikeable characters.
The lead up to the explanation for the actual death of Julien is quite complex and I wondered at times how relevant the other stories were. I was not quite sure of the intentions of the writer.
Three and a half stars for me!
Many thanks to Netgalley/Amanda Bestory-Siegal/Little, Brown Book Group for a digital copy of this title. All opinions expressed are my own.

The Caretakers, the debut novel by Amanda Bestor-Siegal, an American who spent some time in France working as an au pair. It is this experience which has inspired The Caretakers, a book which opens with a wickedly sharp description of a beautiful home in a wealthy Parisian suburb, Maisons-Larue. It is owned by the Chauvet family, who, on the surface are the epitome of success and understated French glamour. Scratch that surface though and things are a little darker. The youngest son of the family, Julien, has died, the au pair arrested for his murder, and the streets of Maisons-Larue are teeming with gossip about what has happened.

On the surface this book is a murder mystery, and it kind of is to an extent, but it is actually far more than that. It is an examination of society, immigration and family set against a backdrop of turmoil. Set in April 2016, Paris is still reeling after the Bataclan attack and this simmering tension provides a constant pressure whilst the events of the novel unfurl. Set in a pivotal moment of modern history, and there is a significant amount of tension and fear on the streets after terrorist attacks on the city. I, well, enjoyed perhaps isn’t the right word, but appreciated this backdrop which conveys the affect on Parisians in the months after the Bataclan attack and of the protests taking place in the capital.

Using one of my favourite narrative devices, the book ricochets backwards taking us through the events which have led to Julien’s death. What seems to be quite simple is actually quite far deeper than first thought and Bestor-Siegal weaves an intricate plot with various narrative threads. We are introduced to the au pairs who work for the city’s wealthy families, the couples who outsource their childcare and the French language teacher trying to educate a group of young au pairs to varying degrees of success.

One of the things I enjoyed the most was the examination of what it is like to work abroad in a country where you don’t speak the language. The au pairs are separated from family and friends and for many of them, this is their first time living as a grown up. The challenge for the characters is to find out who they actually are once they have left the safety net of home and comfort and familiarity. There are some interesting observations on the cultural differences between Americans and Europeans which I found really fascinating.

This is a very clever book, which I enjoyed, but found tough going in places. It deals with a myriad of themes and ideas, and – and I say this as a lover of a multi-person narrative – there is almost too much going on. It begins and ends brilliantly, in fact when I read the opening I knew I was going to love it, but it felt a little bloated in the middle and my mind started to wander. Overall I did enjoy it, I particularly liked the characterisation and the glimpse into the wealthy lives of Parisians and Paris is a character in its own right. I’ve never been, but boy do I want to.

An American au pair is led away in handcuffs by the French police. Inside the house a young boy, aged 9, lies dead in the hallway. Who is to blame?
It’s 2016, in the aftermath of the Paris terror attacks and events like this aren’t supposed to happen in the affluent fictional suburb of Maison-Larue. Neighbours gather, eager for gossip, and to apportion blame. Was the au pair, Alena, responsible or the boy’s mother, Charlotte?
Underneath the apparently placid surface of the middle class, white, aspirational suburb, conveniently located only 15 minutes away from Paris, runs a vein of rage, frustration and neglect. The au pairs come and go, a constant stream of young girls, who move on leaving their young charges to adjust to another one. Alena and her friend Lou wonder how the children they look after feel about the interchanging caregivers. The au pairs are caretakers of the local children while their parents do other things hence the book’s title. Charlotte seethes with rage, knowing that she made the wrong choice by marrying Simon after her divorce and she doesn’t see the warning signs with her two older ones, Natalie and Victor, until it’s too late. The Chauvet family is about to reach boiling point and Julien’s death will be the final straw.
The American au pairs, Holly, Lou and Alena have all been drawn to France and Paris. The sense of beginning your life again, somewhere else, perhaps becoming a different person and feeling as if they’re on an extended holiday attracts them and also the suburb’s close proximity to Paris. But eventually they return home and to familiarity. But will Alena be going home again as she sits in a police cell and is interviewed by the police about events that night?
I found the book slow going in parts and that may be due to so many characters. As another one was introduced I felt that it broke the narrative of the previous one and there was another back story to learn. However, I appreciated the way in which the author revealed how events led up to Julien’s death. It is by small events and misunderstandings, seemingly unrelated, that the reader discovers how the larger ones such as Julien’s death happened.
The au pairs reveal how they are treated by their host families and the reader also learns how the host families view them. The language barrier isa huge problem for the girls which is why Geraldine’s French lessons are so popular. She is an outsider by virtue of her race but has always considered herself French. She is a pivotal character in the book and a link between the girls and their employers. Geraldine tries to help Alena and Lou but is rejected.
Charlotte’s rebellious teenage daughter was a strong character and the author really conveyed her hurt and sense of abandonment as her real father remarried and had a new family and had no time for her or her older brother. The au pairs were all attracted to the city of lights but ultimately felt that they were outsiders. I thought that the author captured that ‘fish out of water’ feeling very well and that they were all interchangeable. However, there was so much back story, especially with Holly who I felt should have been a minor character, that it did feel that Julien’s death got buried in the different stories and then it reappeared at the end as the book’s pace picked up.
However, on the whole I enjoyed the book, which is why I gave it 4 stars. Ultimately it was about the choices that people make and their often unforeseen consequences. Also, the attraction of Paris and what drives young girls to come there to work. But this was a debut novel that needed editing and less characters. It showed another side of the City of Lights and I liked that. I’d be interested to read what the author writes next as she is one to watch.
My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an ARC.

A beautifully written book based in an affluent suburb of Paris. A brilliant mix of characters that draw you into their lives from the very start.

An American au pair is led away by the police after the death of the young boy she was in charge of. Did she cause his death ? Who’s fault was it or was it an accident ?

The story is told via the lives of six women living in Paris. Geraldine is a teacher that always goes the extra mile to help her students. Lou is an au pair, with a wildness about her, that lives with the family over the road from where the boy died. Charlotte is the mother of the boy but she is a very reluctant mother and is very much trying to fit in with the elite neighbours. Nathalie a teenager and daughter of Charlotte, who craves for attention from her mother. Holly an au pair who is very anxious around others but longs to find somewhere she belongs. Finally, Alena the au pair and one accused of killing the young boy.

The book is written so well and I loved getting to know all the characters and the ins and outs of their lives. The relationships between the characters is fully explored and you feel as though you are in Paris with them.

Thank you to Little, Brown Book Group UK and NetGalley for a digital copy of this book.

I found this slightly slow at the start and as the stories are closely linked I did get sightly confused, however the last half of the book was much better and more interesting, particularly Alena's story

THE CARETAKERS - Amanda Bestor-Siegal

Release Date: 12/04/2022

The story starts with a death. What follows is the lead up to that point, like jigsaw pieces  from the perspectives of a handful of characters: young American au pairs trying to find something in Paris; wealthy families in the suburbs of Paris; the French teacher in the area who is simultaneously a part of and apart from both.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and the vignettes of all the characters. The mystery of it all was very secondary. If you are looking for a whodunit murder mystery, this isn't it, but the way the characters all connected with the events taking place kept me hooked.

Each chapter focuses on a different character and there is a lot of jumping back and forth between times that I think would have been a lot less jarring if I had the physical copy. That was literally the only downfall I had with the book.

The story opens with the death of a child. We don’t find out how Julien dies or who is responsible until the end of the book and this is the mystery that runs through the storyline. The story is told by Holly, Lou and Alena, three of the au pairs. Living in France I can empathise with their feeling of isolation and striving to belong whilst trying to come to terms with living in a foreign country, with a different culture and language and I thought Amanda Bestor-Siegal captured this beautifully. The other three women involved are Julien’s mother Charlotte, who has sacrificed practically everything to live the life of a wealthy, cultured Parisian but does not ever feel she belongs. Julien’s sister Nathalie, who is also trying to find her place in the world and failing and Géraldine, the French teacher, who describes how difficult it is to belong when your skin is a different colour and who tries to act as a caretaker to the caretakers..

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. I would not describe it as a thriller or a page turner but I wanted to keep reading because I was totally involved in the six protagonists very different lives, what made them tick and what would happen to them.