The Nesting was an absolute delight to read. The remote Norwegian setting was perfect for creating a sense of isolation, linking the moods of the characters with the harsh and beautiful landscape. It is not surprising that the people living here are suffering from obsession, depression and anxiety; the forest seems to impose itself on them even as they attempt to change their surroundings by diverting the river and cutting down ancient trees. I loved how the myth of the Nokk was interwoven into this eerieness, from the stories read to the children, Gaia and Coco, to the mysterious hoof marks on the the floor and the dreams / visions that haunted them all..
Everyone here is lying and fixated on their own isolation; from Lexi who steals a nanny’s identity to escape her past, the housekeeper Maren who abandons her career as an artist to look after Aurelia, the suicidal mother of Gaia and Coco, Tom who is obsessed with building his wife an eco-house and their friend / business partner Clive and his wife Derry. At times you feel repelled by these characters, but the need to know how Aurelia dies drives you on. The sense of strangeness is perpetuated throughout the story, the feeling that tragedy lurks around every corner as each bad decision is highlighted in the 'then' and 'now' chapters. This swinging from one time frame to another could jar, but here it just adds to the overall sense of disembodiment, a sense of releasing the known and entering the world of myth and legend, a sense of things not being real but still happening. Loved it!

Not for me unfortunately. A rather muddled and overlong read.

Its the story of Lexi, who we are introduced to at the start. In her late 20s, severely depressed and having just survived a suicide attempt, the opening part of the book is narrated by her as her life slowly falls apart as her boyfriend leaves her, she finds herself homeless with no money.

Finding her boyfriends rail ticket, she hops on the first train she can find. She is still riddled with depression, her sanity and her life on a knife edge. On the train journey she overhears two women talking. One of them a nanny, tells her friend she has applied for a job in Norway for a few months to look after a widowers two children. Her friend tells her that she is pregnant and she cant leave her on her own so she decides to stay!
The two women head off to the get something to eat and ask Lexi to keep an eye on their stuff.
She steals a look at the laptop and finds the womans CV and job application which she takes photos of and decides its a good escape for her, she will pretend to be this woman and go for the interview.(this feels so far fetched as I type it and an extremely clunky bit of plotting)

So obviously Lexi gets the job and heads off to Norway to look after two young children, despite having no experience whatsoever, having submitted the glowing CV. Apparently she is able to wing it and learn from YouTube how to do the job. This is the woman that not a chapter or two ago had a failed suicide attempt and couldnt look after herself, never mind to young children in another country!

What entails is the story of the father determination to build a house he had started before his wife had committed suicide, Lexis life looking after the kids and trying to find out about said late wife, some Norwegian folk lore involving spirits of Fjords and nature and not to mess with it and well.. a rather meandering, dare I say it uninteresting read(a bit like this review perhaps!)

No real likeable characters here, all a bit wooden. The story does really drag and the Lexi we are introduced to is not the Lexi we find in Norway. Its all a bit preposterous. I get that the author was trying to build an air of tension and atmosphere in the Norwegian countryside but for me it fell flat on its face. At least 100 pages too long, even the ending annoyed me.

Many thanks to Netgalley, HarperCollins UK and C.J. Cooke for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

CJ Cooke writes a hauntingly atmospheric novel with gothic overtones set amidst Norway's magnificent ancient forests and fjords, a location that serves as a central character in itself. The fragile and vulnerable Lexi Ellis is not in a good place, with a broken relationship behind her, she is suicidal, depressed and virtually homeless. Her desperation leads her to take on the identity and CV of another woman, Sophie Hallerton, for the purpose of securing the post of a nanny after she overhears a conversation. This has her travelling to a remote part of Norway to look after two lovely young children, Gaia and Coco, their mother, Aurelia, recently dead in mysterious circumstances, assumed to have committed suicide.

The widowed and grieving father is a well known architect, Tom, intent on constructing a home in the cliffs, like a nest encroaching on the environment, a dream of his and his late wife, Aurelia, a project that continuously runs into trouble, a previous house by the river was destroyed. His business partner, Clive, is married to Derry, and the odd housekeeper, Maren, was completely devoted to Aurelia. In the face of a series of strange events, and the 'sad lady', Lexi as Sophie is determined to do everything she can to protect the children. The chilling narrative shifts from the past with Aurelia and the present with Lexi, making the most of the stunning location, with local history, culture, the folklore and superstitions infused adroitly into the story.

Cooke's dark, spooky, twisted and ghostly novel provides the perfect reading material with the approaching Autumn and its shorter days, particularly with its elements of the supernatural. It positively drips with atmosphere, hinting of the darkest of fairytales, a diary, and of the breaking the laws of nature. The writing is vibrant and compulsive, with a growing sense of dread pervading the pages, touching on issues of mental health, grief, nature and the environment. A great read and wonderfully plotted Scand-thriller. Many thanks to HarperCollins for an ARC.

I cannot explain how much I loved this beautifully written and wonderfully eerie novel.

'The Nesting' begins with Lexi, who, following a failed suicide attempt, jumps at the opportunity to pose as someone else in order to take up a nannying position in Norway. When she arrives, she immediately falls under the spell of the place, and is enchanted by her charges, Gaia and Coco. Their mother, Aurelia, recently committed suicide, and their grief-stricken father - Tom, a talented architect - has thrown himself into building a one of a kind house in her memory.

Then strange things begin to happen: Gaia experiences night terrors and talks about a Sad Lady with holes for eyes, who her mother could see as well; Tom's construction site is plagued with mysterious happenings after he accidentally floods a river with poison.

When Lexi finds Aurelia's diary, she begins to suspect that not only did Aurelia not commit suicide, but that there may be something more sinister afoot than she could ever have imagined...

Part psychological thriller, part gothic novel, I LOVED the way this beautifully written story wove so many threads together to create an absolutely stunning plot. The Norwegian folklore angle was both fascinating and right up my alley, as was the gorgeously realised setting, which was almost a character in its own right. I loved the beautifully drawn characters, and genuinely had no idea what was going to happen at the end and whether the supernatural element was going to turn out to be a combination of tricks, mirrors and mental illness or an actual plot element (I'll let you see for yourself);

The biggest compliment I can think of paying to an author is that I wish I'd written their book - and oh my goodness, is this one I wish I'd written. I couldn't put it down, and will be thinking about this story for a long time to come. Beautiful, strange, and intricate: I loved it.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher, who provided me with an advance copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

There's *a lot* going on in this book: depression and suicide, motherhood, a suspicious husband, cutey kids, wild animals, possession, a diary with pages ripped out... and a real, honest monster!

I found this very slow to get going and we have to suspend a lot of disbelief that a woman who's just tried to commit suicide, who is depressed and on medication, who can barely drag herself out of bed manages to impersonate a trained nurse and qualified nanny and be given a job - I mean office temps probably have more rigorous interviews than someone living in the home and responsible for kids!

With the usual 'now' and 'then' split narrative, this isn't doing anything wildly original - it's a bit 'The Turn of the Key' and a bit of lots of similar modern Gothic-y, troubled female style books. I think I've read too many of them to get excited over this one - sorry!

#TheNesting #NetGalley
C J Cookie's best work till date.
Lexi isn’t telling the truth about who she is? Escaping to the remote snows of Norway was her lifeline. And all she wanted was to be a part of their lives.
But soon, isolated in that cold, creaking house in the middle of ancient, whispering woods, Lexi's fairytale starts to turn into a nightmare.
With darkness creeping in from the outside, Lexi’s fears are deepening. Lexi knows she needs to protect the children in her care.
I loved the characters as well as narration of the story.
Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins UK Harper Fiction for giving me an advance copy of this psychological thriller.

So tense so chilling I picked up this so well written so creepy read. Could not put it down.an author and a book I will be recommending.#netgalley #harpersuk

Ooh I just loved this, creepy and taut. I feel it would make a great film, the witting was so rich I could see all the places in my head. I love all the gothic tropes, the front cover is fab too!

Just superb!
Lexi has had a difficult life and one she has tried to end because she felt like she couldn’t find a way out. A chance and fleeting encounter on a train gives her the opportunity to escape what is dragging her down and she fraudulently obtains a job as a nanny to two little girls whose father is building an ambitious house in Norway. What could be more perfect for her? A new beginning, a chance to write her Scandi Noir novel...........
However, once there, she discovers that there isn’t just the expected sadness of the children’s mother having apparently committed suicide, but an environment that can be cold and unforgiving, even malicious.
I loved the character of Lexi. She could have easily been ‘ordinary’ but she has a streak of steely self-preservation running through her and her backstory is filled in further on in the book, making the choice to become a nanny and the bond she has with the two girls even more poignant.
The descriptions of the landscape in which Tom is determined to build his architecturally innovative house are fantastic. The pacing of the book always makes you want to read on, which isn’t a brilliant idea at certain points when it’s 1am and there’s a woman in the kitchen who isn’t quite........right......
Fabulously spooky in places, crisp dialogue and keeps secrets to be revealed close to its chest until the time is right - I was gripped from the beginning.
Off to look for more books by this author, thank you for the chance to discover her.

This book is fantastic. I have absolutely loved it and been completely gripped by this one.
This is definitely a read I will be recommending this one.

Thank you to Netgalley and HarperCollins UK, HarperFiction for the arc of The Nesting by C.J Cooke.

This follows a woman named Lexi who has broken up with her boyfriend and whom is practically homeless and has no where else to go so that When a nannying position becomes available and open out of the blue randomly, she does whatever she can to ensure that she gets the job no matter what.... She ends up Travelling all the way to the Fjords which is in Norway, She is really is unaware of whatwill awaits her when she gets there. Who is this Sad Lady that Gaia keeps pointing out? Who keeps calling her in the middle of the night??? and why???

This was a great read, read it within a few days and It had me hooked from line to sinker to the end... it was so gripping and i really enjoyed it, definitely recommend to anyone.

5 Stars⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

spoiler alert ** There's a lot to like in this book..
I think I'd buy it based on the name and cover alone.
The setting,in beautiful remote part of Norway.
A dream house being built.
Not knowing of a character is actually mad or not.
Suspicion on quite a few of the characters.
An out of bounds basement.
The Norwegian folk tales.
A possible curse on the building project.
A ghostly creature haunting the house.
I liked all of these things.
However,for me,the pacing never built up the tension enough.


So,for me,this was an enjoyable read,but didn't live up to my hope that it was going to be a creepy one.

This isn’t my usual genre of book, but I was really intrigued by the blurb. I did enjoy it, and loved the setting, the lore and the atmospheric feel to the book. What I didn’t Love was the ending, it felt so disjointed and didn’t really flow with what I knew about the characters, or what the author told me. Bit of a let down