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A review by keybladium
The Housemaid's Secret by Freida McFadden
3.0
A very disappointing sequel.
I really enjoyed the first book, I found it to be predictable but I loved the setting and the events happening and it was just a fun and addictive light read, so I was really looking forward to reading the second book but it was just disappointing for many reasons.
First of all I found the plot and setting to be very generic including the new characters and the new mysteries too. The characters just felt so 2D and I felt like this story was a mess with trying to balance out the sub plots and the main story. The romance sub plot just didn’t make any sense to me, the characters had no chemistry and Brock was not a interesting character nor was there any reason to be invested in the sub plot but it felt like the majority of the book was revolved around that even though it literally amounted to nothing at all and it served little value to the story.
I found it a lot harder to get gripped into this story, i would admit that the twist wasn’t as foreseeable as the first book, it was still predictable but just not so in your face. But everything just felt so bland and there was little interactions inside the house and around the main plot that I didn’t really care for it as much aside from enjoying a break from the disaster of the whole messy relationship sub plot. Compared to the first book, it didn’t take long for me to be addicted to it and to be immersed and I liked all the interactions and the worldbuilding, but this one lacked all of that and it took significantly longer for the main plot to even start.
One of my biggest frustrations is that this book doesn’t really reward those who read the first book. The mystery around Millie’s past and criminal record is reused again which is just lazy and made me lose interest everytime it was referred to. It could’ve easily been changed to an incident that could’ve happened between the two books or something, but to have the same recurring mystery that was explored in the previous book made it harder to really be invested this time around.
The biggest problem I have with this book is how different Millie is compared to the first book. She’s like a completely new character who is incapable of doing nearly half as much as she could in the first. Millie is very capable of defending herself and I feel like she’s a good example of a strong female character but in this book she’s made to be a lot mentally weaker and doubtful and when it comes down to the more tense situations, she is very scared and unsure if it’s the “right choice”. I’m trying to be vague to not spoil anything but at the end of the first book, she does some very extreme things without a second thought so it’s just odd to see her act so differently and she has an entirely new mindset around everything that aside from her past and name, she could’ve easily been a whole new character.
She was also very inconsistent and her actions would always contradict herself, she was capable of a lot during the early tense interaction in the story, but then she was made to be weak minded in the plot just to be a mastermind at the very end, I just didn’t understand much of what was happening with her character but it was very noticeable and it ruined the immersion whenever she would act out of character.
I mostly found this book to be a mess with trying to handle all the sub plots and the main plots whilst trying to tie them together and it just didn’t feel like it landed as good as it was trying to, especially after just reading the first book and seeing how well structured and balanced that was. There was a lot of things that didn’t make sense and a lot of plot conveniences that happened especially towards the end. The ending just did not feel satisfying and just felt abrupt. Compared to the first book again, it felt satisfying when Millie got her revenge and it was engaging to read, but this one finishes the main plot in like 2 chapters with little of it being Millie’s actions and it just felt very weak.
But whilst my review is very negative, it’s still not a “bad” book but just a very disappointing one for me considering how excited I was to read it after enjoying the first and I felt like there was so much wasted potential and I had higher expectations which soured my outlook on the book when it didn’t meet them.
To list some positives though, the author is very good at structuring the main plot with the first act being the premise and the main plot from Millie’s perspective to then having the explanation of what actually happened through another characters and then having the last parts a mixture of both perspectives. It mixes things up a bit and makes it more fun to see the two different mindsets as well as learn what was actually happening.
The second part where everything was revealed was pretty addicting like the first one, I was curious to see what was actually happening and I didn’t see the twist coming as clearly as the previous book, it wasn’t so in your face with the hints and clues and I felt like it picked up the pacing during part 2
Overall, I still it’s an alright book but I just wish it done more and I didn’t feel like it was anywhere close to the first book but I also don’t think it’s a bad book so for me it’s around 2.5-3/5
I really enjoyed the first book, I found it to be predictable but I loved the setting and the events happening and it was just a fun and addictive light read, so I was really looking forward to reading the second book but it was just disappointing for many reasons.
First of all I found the plot and setting to be very generic including the new characters and the new mysteries too. The characters just felt so 2D and I felt like this story was a mess with trying to balance out the sub plots and the main story. The romance sub plot just didn’t make any sense to me, the characters had no chemistry and Brock was not a interesting character nor was there any reason to be invested in the sub plot but it felt like the majority of the book was revolved around that even though it literally amounted to nothing at all and it served little value to the story.
I found it a lot harder to get gripped into this story, i would admit that the twist wasn’t as foreseeable as the first book, it was still predictable but just not so in your face. But everything just felt so bland and there was little interactions inside the house and around the main plot that I didn’t really care for it as much aside from enjoying a break from the disaster of the whole messy relationship sub plot. Compared to the first book, it didn’t take long for me to be addicted to it and to be immersed and I liked all the interactions and the worldbuilding, but this one lacked all of that and it took significantly longer for the main plot to even start.
One of my biggest frustrations is that this book doesn’t really reward those who read the first book. The mystery around Millie’s past and criminal record is reused again which is just lazy and made me lose interest everytime it was referred to. It could’ve easily been changed to an incident that could’ve happened between the two books or something, but to have the same recurring mystery that was explored in the previous book made it harder to really be invested this time around.
The biggest problem I have with this book is how different Millie is compared to the first book. She’s like a completely new character who is incapable of doing nearly half as much as she could in the first. Millie is very capable of defending herself and I feel like she’s a good example of a strong female character but in this book she’s made to be a lot mentally weaker and doubtful and when it comes down to the more tense situations, she is very scared and unsure if it’s the “right choice”. I’m trying to be vague to not spoil anything but at the end of the first book, she does some very extreme things without a second thought so it’s just odd to see her act so differently and she has an entirely new mindset around everything that aside from her past and name, she could’ve easily been a whole new character.
She was also very inconsistent and her actions would always contradict herself, she was capable of a lot during the early tense interaction in the story, but then she was made to be weak minded in the plot just to be a mastermind at the very end, I just didn’t understand much of what was happening with her character but it was very noticeable and it ruined the immersion whenever she would act out of character.
I mostly found this book to be a mess with trying to handle all the sub plots and the main plots whilst trying to tie them together and it just didn’t feel like it landed as good as it was trying to, especially after just reading the first book and seeing how well structured and balanced that was. There was a lot of things that didn’t make sense and a lot of plot conveniences that happened especially towards the end. The ending just did not feel satisfying and just felt abrupt. Compared to the first book again, it felt satisfying when Millie got her revenge and it was engaging to read, but this one finishes the main plot in like 2 chapters with little of it being Millie’s actions and it just felt very weak.
But whilst my review is very negative, it’s still not a “bad” book but just a very disappointing one for me considering how excited I was to read it after enjoying the first and I felt like there was so much wasted potential and I had higher expectations which soured my outlook on the book when it didn’t meet them.
To list some positives though, the author is very good at structuring the main plot with the first act being the premise and the main plot from Millie’s perspective to then having the explanation of what actually happened through another characters and then having the last parts a mixture of both perspectives. It mixes things up a bit and makes it more fun to see the two different mindsets as well as learn what was actually happening.
The second part where everything was revealed was pretty addicting like the first one, I was curious to see what was actually happening and I didn’t see the twist coming as clearly as the previous book, it wasn’t so in your face with the hints and clues and I felt like it picked up the pacing during part 2
Overall, I still it’s an alright book but I just wish it done more and I didn’t feel like it was anywhere close to the first book but I also don’t think it’s a bad book so for me it’s around 2.5-3/5