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3.5 AVERAGE
3.5 AVERAGE
I really loved Scott throughout the book. Then when it all came together I was a little let down. I thought it would be more....climatic.
Emily’s life is falling apart. Everything is going wrong. Then her boss offers her a job as his wife’s personal assistant. It’s a dream job. Great pay, great environment. But things start getting a little curious, causing Emily to think that everything may not be quite as they seem on the surface.
Seriously, a great read. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. I stayed up all night to finish this book because I couldn’t put it down without knowing what happened next.
I loved the characters. Things didn’t seem quite right, but I didn’t figure out what was going on until about halfway through the book. It’s hard to explain without spoilers. Just know, the characters were awesome!
The writing was great, too. I seriously had no issues.
In full honesty here, I thought I got a contemporary fiction novel. I had no idea it was a thriller until I started feeling stressed and looked it up. I haven’t read many thrillers, but I really enjoyed this. I may need to pick up more thrillers.
I give this book 4 stars.
*I received this book in exchange for an honest review.
Seriously, a great read. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. I stayed up all night to finish this book because I couldn’t put it down without knowing what happened next.
I loved the characters. Things didn’t seem quite right, but I didn’t figure out what was going on until about halfway through the book. It’s hard to explain without spoilers. Just know, the characters were awesome!
The writing was great, too. I seriously had no issues.
In full honesty here, I thought I got a contemporary fiction novel. I had no idea it was a thriller until I started feeling stressed and looked it up. I haven’t read many thrillers, but I really enjoyed this. I may need to pick up more thrillers.
I give this book 4 stars.
*I received this book in exchange for an honest review.
Thank you to NetGalley and Affirm Press for the digital arc of this title.
The Safe Place by Anna Downes is a psychological thriller that will keep you guessing. The novel centers around Emily, who is an aspiring actress who is down on her luck. Then she catches the attention of Scott Denny, a CEO who decides that Emily will make the perfect companion for his wife and child. And so ensues a book that will keep you guessing as to what exactly is going on.
So my caveat going in to this is that I'm pretty new to the psychological thriller genre and I tend to be hit and miss with the genre. This one really kept me interested throughout. The characters aren't all the most likable but I found them all really interesting. I thought the story was really solid as well and it kept me wondering what was going to happen next. And as is typical with a thriller I will leave the plot alone for fear of giving something away.
Overall I'd recommend this book to people who like their thrillers on the light weight side. Enough intrigue to keep you interested but not on the edge of your seat waiting for the bottom to drop out the whole time.
NARRATION: I thought the narration on this one was top notch. The author is actually the narrator on this one too and she does a top notch job. I amused myself at one point because while most characters in the book have British accents there is one character with an Australian accent. When she first started speaking I was really annoyed that the narrator was using an Australian accent instead of a British one. A few minutes later it actually becomes a plot point that the character had an odd accent because she was originally from Australia! (I worked for a year with someone from Australia so to me the accents aren't even remotely close.)
The Safe Place by Anna Downes is a psychological thriller that will keep you guessing. The novel centers around Emily, who is an aspiring actress who is down on her luck. Then she catches the attention of Scott Denny, a CEO who decides that Emily will make the perfect companion for his wife and child. And so ensues a book that will keep you guessing as to what exactly is going on.
So my caveat going in to this is that I'm pretty new to the psychological thriller genre and I tend to be hit and miss with the genre. This one really kept me interested throughout. The characters aren't all the most likable but I found them all really interesting. I thought the story was really solid as well and it kept me wondering what was going to happen next. And as is typical with a thriller I will leave the plot alone for fear of giving something away.
Overall I'd recommend this book to people who like their thrillers on the light weight side. Enough intrigue to keep you interested but not on the edge of your seat waiting for the bottom to drop out the whole time.
NARRATION: I thought the narration on this one was top notch. The author is actually the narrator on this one too and she does a top notch job. I amused myself at one point because while most characters in the book have British accents there is one character with an Australian accent. When she first started speaking I was really annoyed that the narrator was using an Australian accent instead of a British one. A few minutes later it actually becomes a plot point that the character had an odd accent because she was originally from Australia! (I worked for a year with someone from Australia so to me the accents aren't even remotely close.)
The Safe Place is the perfect holiday read, the sort of book you read in a single day without budging from your sun lounger. This is Downes' first novel and at times there a moment where the polish is not quite there, but it's such a ripping page-turner that the occasional heavy-handedness can be forgiven.
The book is mainly set in France, although begins and ends in the UK. Although Downes is an Australian writer the only nod to Australia is that one of the main characters originally came from Sydney's Northern Beaches. This 'international' flavour is both a help and a hindrance to Downes' marketability: Australians often want to read books set here for that familiarity of place and character types. But, if you're going for an international audience, using neutral territory in terms of culture and language for your setting might be the way to go. However, then you lose the potential exoticism that Australian settings might hold for international readers. Regardless, place is not really that significant in this book as it is in so many current, popular Aussie crime novels. This book is all about psychological thrill and really, it could have been set in Timbuktu for the significance 'place' plays.
In this debut Downes has demonstrated enough skill to become a solid internationally selling thriller writer who just happens to be Australian, which is quite different to the current trove of Aussie crime writers, e.g. Jane Harper, who use place as a fully fledged character in its own right.
I also liked how Downes used gaslighting as a device, both between the characters and between her the writer and us the readers, leaving the reader to frequently question if what was being narrated to us was 'true' or the delusions of the narrators.
It also wrapped up satisfyingly well, with the 'baddies' and the 'goodies' clearly delineated and dealt with.
Warning that it includes portrayals of child wellbeing issues. No gratuitous violence though.
Please shop at your local indie bookshop.
Check out my other book reviews at https://www.instagram.com/avrbookstuff
The book is mainly set in France, although begins and ends in the UK. Although Downes is an Australian writer the only nod to Australia is that one of the main characters originally came from Sydney's Northern Beaches. This 'international' flavour is both a help and a hindrance to Downes' marketability: Australians often want to read books set here for that familiarity of place and character types. But, if you're going for an international audience, using neutral territory in terms of culture and language for your setting might be the way to go. However, then you lose the potential exoticism that Australian settings might hold for international readers. Regardless, place is not really that significant in this book as it is in so many current, popular Aussie crime novels. This book is all about psychological thrill and really, it could have been set in Timbuktu for the significance 'place' plays.
In this debut Downes has demonstrated enough skill to become a solid internationally selling thriller writer who just happens to be Australian, which is quite different to the current trove of Aussie crime writers, e.g. Jane Harper, who use place as a fully fledged character in its own right.
I also liked how Downes used gaslighting as a device, both between the characters and between her the writer and us the readers, leaving the reader to frequently question if what was being narrated to us was 'true' or the delusions of the narrators.
It also wrapped up satisfyingly well, with the 'baddies' and the 'goodies' clearly delineated and dealt with.
Warning that it includes portrayals of child wellbeing issues. No gratuitous violence though.
Please shop at your local indie bookshop.
Check out my other book reviews at https://www.instagram.com/avrbookstuff
A different kind of mystery and the plot set up was different as well. I enjoyed it
Thanks to #netgalley for the ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review. An aspiring actress loses her day job and her agent with nothing to look forward to she feels her luck changes when she is offered a job as an assistant to a woman living in France with a child in a luxury estate. It feels like just the lucky break she needs. There are a few rules, no phones, no visitors, do no enter the main house. These rules seem such a small price to pay for living a life so far from her current dismal circumstances. I was captivated from the moment she enters the estate, the suspense builds throughout the book when she starts to realise things aren't quite right or as they first appeared. The old saying of 'Too good to be true' kept ringing in my head whilst reading this book. A great debut novel from Anna Downes. #netgalley #annadownes #thesafeplace #tea_sipping_bookworm #bookstagram #bookqueen #amazon#kindle #litsy #bookqueen #greatreads #thriller
When is something just too good to be true? When our protagonist loses her job and is then offered the absolute perfect summer job with a dream location, what could go wrong? Ha! This is a twisty, well-paced novel that keeps you reading long after it’s time to turn the lights off.
Definitely recommend.
Thank you for the eARC to review.
#TheSafeSpace #Netgalley #StMartinsPress #Minotaur
Definitely recommend.
Thank you for the eARC to review.
#TheSafeSpace #Netgalley #StMartinsPress #Minotaur
This book had me guessing right from the beginning. I didnt guess right. What a surprise that was!
Emily Proudman is a young struggling actress living in London and her life is falling apart. She just got fired from her temp job, her acting agent is dropping her and she's in the verge of being evicted.
Just then Scott Denny, the CEO of the company she was temping at offers a once in a life time opportunity to come be a housekeeper / au pair / live in personal assistant to his wife who's living in a beautiful house in France.
Eager to get away from her life, Emily jumps at the opportunity and moves into the estate where she meets Nina, Scott's wife. Emily has heard some rumors around the office that Nina is crazy and that Scott hates her but when she meets Nina she finds her to be ethereal and lovely and the two become friends.
However, there is definitely something more sinister lurking beneath the surface of this perfect exterior.
I found this book started off strong - I was invested in Emily's life and sympathetic to the mess she's made of it and the need to find an escape - who wouldn't? I was also curious about her and Scott's story line as it seemed that there was a hint of chemistry there.
Once Emily get to their estate in France I also found it to be a bit unsettling and there definitely seemed to be a lot of tension building. However, the execution of the ending fell flat for me. I found that this book seemed like it was taking way too many twists and nothing was really coming to fruition - it all struck me as a bit jarring and disorienting. I couldn't find the novel coming together in a seamless way and it was disappointing after the set up and the premise seemed fresh and new.
This book is available on July 14, 2020.
Thank you to Minotaur Books and NetGalley for providing me with a copy in exchange for my honest review.
Just then Scott Denny, the CEO of the company she was temping at offers a once in a life time opportunity to come be a housekeeper / au pair / live in personal assistant to his wife who's living in a beautiful house in France.
Eager to get away from her life, Emily jumps at the opportunity and moves into the estate where she meets Nina, Scott's wife. Emily has heard some rumors around the office that Nina is crazy and that Scott hates her but when she meets Nina she finds her to be ethereal and lovely and the two become friends.
However, there is definitely something more sinister lurking beneath the surface of this perfect exterior.
I found this book started off strong - I was invested in Emily's life and sympathetic to the mess she's made of it and the need to find an escape - who wouldn't? I was also curious about her and Scott's story line as it seemed that there was a hint of chemistry there.
Once Emily get to their estate in France I also found it to be a bit unsettling and there definitely seemed to be a lot of tension building. However, the execution of the ending fell flat for me. I found that this book seemed like it was taking way too many twists and nothing was really coming to fruition - it all struck me as a bit jarring and disorienting. I couldn't find the novel coming together in a seamless way and it was disappointing after the set up and the premise seemed fresh and new.
This book is available on July 14, 2020.
Thank you to Minotaur Books and NetGalley for providing me with a copy in exchange for my honest review.
Wow! I just put this book down and am sad it's over. The suspense had me at the very beginning. I was hooked almost right away. I typically don't gravitate to thriller, suspense type books but I think Anna has made me a fan.
At the beginning I was worried it was going to be like Fifty Shades of Grey based on Scotts character. I was pleasantly surprised that that wasn't the case. My imagination wondered while I pictured Querencia and all the dark beauty it was. My predictions at the end were a little bit different than I expected and it was a great surprise. I would definitely recommend this book for people look for a thriller.
Thank you #netgalley and Anna Downes for the opportunity to review #thesafeplace
At the beginning I was worried it was going to be like Fifty Shades of Grey based on Scotts character. I was pleasantly surprised that that wasn't the case. My imagination wondered while I pictured Querencia and all the dark beauty it was. My predictions at the end were a little bit different than I expected and it was a great surprise. I would definitely recommend this book for people look for a thriller.
Thank you #netgalley and Anna Downes for the opportunity to review #thesafeplace