{I've Been Reading} The Safe Place

The Safe Place by Anna Downes

Emily is at the end of her rope. She's just lost her temporary job as a receptionist because she was absent too many times, going to acting auditions that don't work out. She's been evicted from her awful little apartment. Her adoptive parents won't loan her any more money... Then, out of the blue, she gets the offer for a job that seems too wonderful and perfect to be true.

The owner of the company she was just fired from wants her to work at his remote estate in France. His wife, Nina, needs an assistant, someone to help with her projects and some light housework and free up more time for Nina to spend with their daughter who has severe issues with her health.

Something is wrong on the property, something more sinister than the underlying reek of mold that fills the two houses, or the fact that distance and the lack of phone reception completely cuts them off from the outside world. But Emily is able to ignore that as she enjoys long afternoons by the pool sharing bottles of wine and enjoying Nina's fantastic cooking. Nina has created a haven for her little family and Emily is happy to be there with them until the signs that something is very wrong become too blatant for her to ignore.

I enjoyed this one. Emily, despite the fact that she can't keep her life together and is a little too snoopy for her own good at times, is a likable heroine. Nina obviously has problems, but I never guessed at what she and her husband were hiding.  And the setting is fantastic, something different from the domestic  thrillers I usually read.




The New Husband by D. J. Palmer

A year after the disappearance of her husband, Simon steps into Nina's life and she finds herself falling in love again. Simon is attentive and caring, Compared to the things she now knows about her first husband he's absolutely perfect, and he wants to build a life with Nina and her two teenage children.

Nina might have blinders on, but her daughter sees lots of red flags. The plot gets off to an almost painfully slow start, but about halfway through things suddenly get a whole lot more interesting. After that point, it's definitely a page turner. I'm glad I stuck with it.



The School Friend by Alison James

Lucy and Adele have a secret. They've never revealed  the details of what happened at the reservoir that afternoon when they went out with another girl and only the two of  them made it back home. But that's not what this book is actually about, despite what the cover copy implies. The secret that Adele and Lucy share is important, but it pales in comparison to what Lucy is dealing with right now.

The level of suspense in this one is high and I was holding my breath as the plot twisted and the situation got steadily worse. Lucy is in an abusive marriage and the details of her situation were hard to read about as it went from bad to worse. I went into this one expecting the focus to be on what Lucy and Adule had done as children, but that's revealed over the course of a few flashbacks. (The title of this one has changed since I received my review copy, which was titled The Friendship Pact.)

Disclosure -- The publisher provided me with an ARC. This post contains affiliate links.