I find myself torn over what rating to give The Babysitter.

On one hand, it certainly kept me reading. I stayed up late to finish it. Yet that was mainly because I had to know what happened to the baby, on the tiny chance that she was still alive. The rest of the plot – or at least, who the guilty parties were – I'd predicted right from the start so in that sense it was a bit of a slog to get through.

The characters are all pretty awful people. I liked Alex, the policeman investigating the case, and Caroline, the murder victim. But Callum is a horrible person and Siobhan is a drip. I found I didn't really care what happened to them. So, as I said, if it hadn't been for the mystery of baby Eve I might not have bothered to finish the book.

I also found it rather carelessly written. Everyone sounds the same. For instance, two completely unrelated characters remark that someone should have had a sibling 'to knock their edges off', and there are several more examples like this. It felt like the book was written quickly with no attention to polishing it.

Overall, it was a reasonable enough way to pass the time but I think there are better books in the genre out there.

The Babysitter by Phoebe Morgan
Thanks @netgalley @phoebeannmorgan and @hqstories for my arc
Publication date 28th May 2020
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An absolutely amazing whodunnit story told in multiple point of views. I absolutely raced through this. The story comes crashing to an amazing and totally unpredictable ending. Brilliant. Highly recommended xxx

Wow! What an absolutely fantastic book!!
I literally haven't been able to put this one down and have read it in just a matter of hours.
This is a book which captured my attention from the very beginning and had been gripping and enthralling from the very beginning.
On occasions, I've thought I had the ending of this one figured out. However, the author has then twisted the plot so it throws you off completely.
I have adored the characters in this book, although I have been suspicious of a all of them as the plot has developed.
This is a masterpiece of a thriller, which contains a number of real-life issues, including adultery, family issues and mentions abortion. However, the author has portrayed each in such a way they fit naturally into the story.
I am devastated that I will never have the excitement of reading this book for the first time again. It is one which I highly recommend because I haven't been able to able to put it down. This is without hesitation a five star read.

I enjoyed this book. When Caroline agrees to look after her friends baby, Eve, she deals with the turmoil of her emotions. She wants a baby...she wants THIS baby. And when Eve's mother returns, Caroline is leaning over the cot, dead and bleeding. And Eve is gone.

It's a twisty tale. I found the end result was quite predictable from early on which was a shame, but it played out well and one particular twist was a surprise. I'd read other books by this author.

Really enjoyed this book well written & loved how it flipped between past & present giving the buildup to what happened. I’d recommend this to anyone,

The Babysitter is the first book I have read by this author and it won’t be the last.

One year old Eve has gone missing and her babysitter Caroline has been murdered. Callum Dillon is on holiday with his family in France when he is arrested for the murder of Caroline and the abduction of Eve. But how does Callum know Caroline and why would he murder her?

A well written thriller with a good twist at the end.

Phoebe Morgan's third book is every bit as good as her first two. Reading it helped me out of a slump where I've currently found a lot of new books difficult to get into.

Ther are plenty of twists and turns from the moment the police turn up to arrest Callum for the murder of his mistress Caroline, the baby sitter of the title. But did he kill her? He continuously protests his innocence while trying to protect his TV career. His wife Siobhan stands by him only because she wants to protect Emma, their teenage daughter, who is very close to her father and Siobhan's sister, Maria.

The night Caroline is brutally murdered she is babysitting the one-year-old daughter of her old schoolfriend Jenny. But when Caroline's body is discovered, the baby is nowhere to be found.

So not only do we have a whodunnit, but we also have the mystery of where is the baby Caroline was looking after?

A most enjoyable read. Many thanks to Netgalley and HQ for the opportunity to read and review The Babysitter.

Wow! This book is a true suspense thriller. I read a lot of these types of books and usually figure out the plot pretty early on. This book? I was at 90% and still guessing! Extremely well written and telling the story from different times and by different people really added to the richness of the story.

Wow! What an absolutely fantastic book!!
I literally haven't been able to put this one down and have read it in just a matter of hours.
This is a book which captured my attention from the very beginning and had been gripping and enthralling from the very beginning.
On occasions, I've thought I had the ending of this one figured out. However, the author has then twisted the plot so it throws you off completely.
I have adored the characters in this book, although I have been suspicious of a all of them as the plot has developed.
This is a masterpiece of a thriller, which contains a number of real-life issues, including adultery, family issues and mentions abortion. However, the author has portrayed each in such a way they fit naturally into the story.
I am devastated that I will never have the excitement of reading this book for the first time again. It is one which I highly recommend because I haven't been able to able to put it down. This is without hesitation a five star read.

Do you love thrillers with mind blowing twists? If you do you’ve picked the right book. Stunning in every way!

Really quick paced, enjoyed the back and forth narrative between characters and timelines.

Predicted a few of the twists but some had me very surprised! Easy read - fab for people just branching into mystery/thriller genre.

Having enjoyed Phoebe Morgan's other books, I was excited to have the chance to review ''The Babysitter.'

I was engaged from the beginning, when we are introduced to Siobhan and Callum and their teenage daughter, Emma. Emma is painted as a typical, hormonal teenage girl, which I'm sure many readers will empathise with.

I liked the use of multi narrative, which lets us hear Caroline's point of view. (Callum's mistress)
I didn't want to like Caroline because of the infidelity. However, once her own story was revealed , it made me very emotional. Caroline meets up with her old school friend, Jenny and her husband, Ricky. While babysitting,
Caroline is found dead and baby Eve is missing. I found myself praying that she'd be found alive. As the story progressed and evidence was found in a suitcase, it seemed like this would be unlikely.

The blurb tells us 'it was the husband, it's always the husband.' It is scary how easily Callum was arrested and interrogated for a crime he didn't commit. Throughout the book we are drip fed pieces of information and I came up with a number of theories, but it was a fabulous twist which I hadn't figured out.

The Babysitter left me with a need to read 'just one more chapter' . I would thoroughly recommend this read.

Siobhan and Callum are on holiday in France when Callum is arrested for murder of his former girlfriend Caroline.
Caroline was babysitting when she was murdered and the baby is nowhere to be found.
A thriller that kept me guessing.
Thank you to NetGalley and HQ for my e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to @Phoebe_A_Morgan and @HQStories for a copy of this book in return for an honest review. 

Description 🔖

Callum, Siobhan and Emma Dillon are enjoying a family holiday in France in a luxurious villa in the middle of August. Only two days into their stay, Callum is arrested by French police on suspicion of murder and flown straight back to England. 

A fews days before Callum's arrest, Caroline Harvey is found dead in her flat and her best friend's baby whom she was babysitting has disappeared without a trace. 

The Gares family are torn apart whilst the search continues for their missing one year old whilst Siobhan tries to piece together how her husband is linked to this heinous crime and keep her family together. 

General Thoughts 🤔

I was instantly attracted to this book by it's synopsis and was hooked straight away as soon as I started reading. It's for sure an unputdownable page turner, with every new page edging closer and closer to a big reveal. 

I have to admit that I suspected I had it figured out by about a third of the way in but that didn't put me off in any way. I had a strong feeling about how Caroline had come to her end, but not a clue about what had happened to poor baby Eve, so I was still hooked and still gobbling up every detail of the story. 

Characters 👫👭👬

I had some pretty strong feelings about some of the characters right off the bat. I sympathised with Caroline, not just because she was murdered, but because it was obvious from the off that her life was in a difficult place and I'm sure she didn't feel like she was where she had wanted to be at that stage of life. 

I'd like to say I sympathised with Siobhan but I kind of found her to be a little bit weak. She had made decisions for what she probably thought were the right reasons at the time, but not decisions that I personally agree with. 

Callum is an egotistical idiot. That's pretty much all I have to say about him. 

Writing Style ✍🏽

This is the first Phoebe Morgan book that I have read and I am impressed with how she managed to keep me consistently at attention throughout the book. I didn't feel like there were any "filler" chapters or detail for the sake of detail. I took in every single word, searching for clues as to how this story was going to unravel. 

The book flits between the murder/abduction investigation and the night of the murder with each chapter edging closer and closer to the reveal. I really liked the way that the chapters covering the night of the murder gave us insight into what happened that night little by little. 

Conclusion & Scoring 🎖

Although my strong suspicion of "whodunnit" was indeed correct, the book was by no means spoilt for me. Reading all of the details slot into place and piece together was really satisfying. There was no messing around with this book, it was relatively short, snappy and full of drama. I'll for sure be adding more Phoebe Morgan to my TBR and would most definitely recommend this book to anyone who loves a mystery thriller.

This book was exciting. Fun to read and well written. Did hit a slight bump in the road mid way through. But soon picked itself back up and got back on track. It was a good psychological thriller. Never knowing which way it was going to end.

Thanks to NetGalley and HQ for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
#TheBabysitter #NetGalley

Another compelling read from Phoebe Morgan, with plenty of unpredictable twists along the way. My, my, Phoebe Morgan certainly knows how to tell a great story. I was absorbed in this novel from the get-go. From the very first page I had that tingly feeling that this story was going to be an edge of your seat, deeply engrossing read. I was right. As a domestic-noir-come-suspense novel, 'The Babysitter' is a first-class example. It starts with the murder of Caroline Harvey, and the disappearance of baby Eve. The obvious prime suspect for the crimes is Callum, television executive, and lately lover of Caroline Harvey. Then there is Callum's deeply unhappy wife, Siobhan, her sister Maria, and Callum and Siobhan's moody teenage daughter, Emma. Moreover, should we expand the circle of suspects to include baby Eve's smug parents? After all, Caroline was far from an ideal babysitter. Well, I 'll let you keep guessing on that one, because you are in for one heck of a ride to the final, stunning denouement. With more twists and turns than a slalom run, 'The Babysitter' will certainly keep you guessing.... and guessing. With her perceptive observations of the human condition, distilled in the characterisation of her main protagonists, Phoebe Morgan puts the thrill in the thriller and the psychology into the psychological. Absolutely breathtaking stuff!

After a family emergency, a woman asks her friend who is visiting to look after her child for the night. She is then found murdered with the baby missing and the number one suspect is the married man she was seeing. I found this book to be a little predictable in places but a pleasant enough read and I did enjoy it. I'd definitely recommend it if someone was looking for a light beach-y read!

I very much enjoyed this story. It kept me guessing (wrongly!) all the way through. I liked the structure with the different timelines and points of view, and the characters were interesting, although I didn't feel I really got to 'know' any of them.

A tiny niggle - 'I' was quite often used when it should have been 'me' .

This one certainly kept me turning the pages!

Caroline Harvey is found murdered in her flat; the baby she was looking after, her friend’s daughter, is missing. The man Caroline has been having an affair with, Callum Dillon, is arrested while on holiday with his family - wife Siobhan, daughter Emma and sister in law Maria -on suspicion of murder and abduction.

Selfish, philandering Callum is undoubtedly a jerk, but is he a murderer? And where is baby Eve?

The story has plenty of twists and turns, and kept me guessing till the end - I had no idea for a long time who had murdered Caroline, and although I did get an inkling about this towards the end, I still had no idea what had happened to the baby. While it did take me a while to get into the story, the last half of the book had me gripped.

(At one point, the missing baby plot brought back unfortunate memories of the dreaded The Couple Next Door - though thankfully this is much better written and better plotted.)

A great read.

I genuinely could not put this down. Just when you think you’ve figured it out, something else happens and you have to change theories. It’s twisty, it’s turny, it’s gripping. It’s everything a thriller should be.