I found this to be a decent 3* Good Read.

It's set in Paris and begins with a child being carried out of a house and the arrest of an American Au Pair. The neighbours watch on and lay the blame at either the Au Pair, or, the mother.
It's a book set soon after the terrorist attacks in Paris and so the city is on edge and this nervousness and tension is carried through in the writing of the relationships.

It's quite a complex read as there are many characters and situations and I did find it difficult to stick with.

Overall though, it's an interesting read.

Thanks to NetGalley and Little, Brown Book Group for the opportunity to preview.

Here comes one highly unpopular review.

As you all know, the process of requesting a book for review pre-publication is a fairly simple one. Either you know the author and enjoy their work and you head straight for the request button, or you don't know the author, you read the blurb and it piques your interest and after a bit of deliberation, you hit that request button. The latter was the case for this book. So my request was highly dependent on the blurb.

The blurb promises us a thriller in which a young American woman, au-pairing for an affluent French couple, is accused of killing their child. The title alludes to multiple suspects or witnesses. So, the expectations are set on a domestic thriller/mystery in which there might be multiple suspects. Reasonable deduction, right?

The opening pages were very reminiscent of those of Little Fires Everywhere (in which the fire engines were wailing in the quiet neighbourhood after someone managed to burn a house down. Only in the Caretakers, the fire engines were swapped for police cars). As the first few chapters progressed, I was reminded of the general layout of the Secret History by Donna Tartt. We are presented with an alleged crime, we are still to know what led to it and who actually committed it. So, it wasn't a wild shot to expect an exploration of the characters' landscape with relevance to the alleged crime. The writing was competent enough, detailed enough, to be labeled "literary". I enjoy slow burn book, so I read on. But as the book progressed—and I mean the book in terms of pages not in terms of story—it did a lot of exploring each and every character to the minutest detail without any relevance to what we needed to know— what I needed to know. I started getting the feeling that the characters themselves were irrelevant to the storyline, let alone their expansive backstories. What did Lou have to do with anything? Or Holly? Or even Geraldine, the first character listed in the blurb?

I must say that I had to put the book down and pick up some short stories, thinking that I was having a reading slump. But when I picked the Caretakers back up, I was more confident in my judgment that I wasn't part of the problem. The book was simply plotless. It set the scene for a crime and somehow seemed to forget about it for the most part. Definitely not the Secret History.

It was a classic case of "there's a lot MORE to storytelling than just, well, TELLING". And boy! This book was all about telling and telling and telling!

Many thanks to Little, Brown Book Group and NetGalley for my e-arc.

It's been a few weeks since I finished The Caretakers, and I'm still thinking about it nearly every day. It took me a bit to get into it, but once I did, I was completely hooked. To weave six perspectives through the book so seamlessly is a triumph, all hurtling towards a truly heartbreaking ending - I cannot wait to read what this author writes next.

One of the things that drew me to this book was the blurb - unfortunately I was not gripped until the ending. I found the story telling a bit long winded and repetitive and a little confusing with the way in which it jumped back and forth within the timelines of each character.

My interest in this book stemmed from the arrest of an au pair after the death of the child in her care. But this didn't occur until quite near the end.

Some of the characters background was interesting to read about - like Alena's past childhood but I felt that Lou and Geraldine added nothing to the story.
Although the death of Julian was an awful incident, it didn't really touch on this much. I can see why it may have some comparisons to Lianne Moriarty's Big Little Lies, but only because this author was trying to build up each leading lady in the book. Unfortunately this book just wasn't for me.
Many thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for my copy of the ebook in return for my honest review.

I struggle to get into this one, I tried a few times but found myself not be able to connect with the characters. I will return to this because I like the premise of the story of an hour I’ll just take a pause.

Unfortunately I found the blurb to be much more gripping and interesting than the book and I struggled to get through it.
I was initially interested given the topic of the death of a child and the arrest of his au pair, but although the story is told through 6 female characters, I found most of them to be superfluous and none of them were particularly likeable.
I found it interesting to read about Alena's past and her childhood but I don't feel that Lou or Geraldine added much to the story and it was much longer than it needed to be.
Although the death of Julian was awful, even he came across as whiny and spoilt and I didn't feel much sympathy for his mother or sister (Nathalie and her going on and on about silks)
My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for my eARC in return for my honest review.

I found I enjoyed this book very much, even if a bit slow in parts. It tells the story of different characters centred around the death of a child that one of the US Au Pairs is looking after in France. Set after the terrorist attacks, there is good insight into how people must have felt when venturing out again. It is interesting to see how Au Pairs are treated by different families and we also read about the French teacher who teaches them basic French to do their job. She has her own trials and tribulations.
Overall I enjoyed it.

Unfortunately struggled with this and DNF. Thank you for the opportunity to read. I just couldn’t get into the story.

Not a book that would normally appeal to me but I became absobed by it and thoroughly enjoyed it.
The lives if 6 women initially seperate but become entwined together.
I read it really quickly. Highly recommeded.

Thank you for net galley and the publisher for this advance arc . This is an easy to read, beautiful story with vivid imagery and a well constructed plot and I would highly recommend .

This opens like a thriller in that we know something terrible has happened, but in reality it’s a slow burn reveal of relationships between those who look after children in a Parisian suburb. I really enjoyed it - the characters are nicely drawn, the relationships really interesting and the slow reveal of how the tragedy came to pass is well done.

This book starts with the arrest of an au pair after the death of one of the children she was looking after. I thought it would have a bit of a suspense/who done it theme but that was not the case.

It looked back at the run up to his death and various, mostly female, characters and it felt very character focused.

Sadly for me I didn’t feel to connected to any of the characters and at times it went on for several pages but not much happened.

I think this would suit fans of character driven type books.

Thank you to #NetGalley for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

I usually enjoy books with a French setting; The caretakers is an exception. I’ve tried to get into this story a few times since I downloaded and I’ve struggled to engage with either the characters or plot. The premise sounds intriguing. The delivery is extraordinarily dull with flat characters and very little sense of time and place. Exceptionally, I’ve been unable to finish this book and I’ve given up.

My thanks to the publisher for a review copy via Netgalley.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book. I have chosen to write this honest review voluntarily.
I was attracted to this book by the subject matter - the death of a child and the arrest of the au pair - in the setting of Paris. It took me a long time to read the first 10% as it seemed to be filled with selfish female characters who care little for each other, their families or the children in their care. There seemed to be no commitment to their role (although I understand this can be driven by the families' treatment of the person who has arrived to provide childcare in exchange for board and lodging whilst learning the culture and language of their chosen 'home') or friendships among the group. I disliked the content and characters so much I stopped reading at 10%.

I started this book with enthusiasm and indeed I did enjoy the beginning but then my interest waned.
I found that I did not really relate to the characters and found it quite a slow burn. Despite the good descriptive writing I found myself skimming pages.

I didn’t like this book very much so I gave up very quickly. My thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

I started this book with high hopes as the first few chapters had me gripped. Unfortunately the longer the book went on the more my interest waned and I found myself skim reading just to get to the end. The bit i enjoyed the most about the book was the insight into how French culture differs from English/American cultures and how difficult it appeared to be accepted into the French culture. I don't think I found any of the characters particularly likable which is why I might have struggled a bit to connect to this book.

A disturbing story of a group of au pairs (caretakers) charged with caring for French children in a Paris suburb. The parents for various reasons prefer to pay a young adult to take the responsibility for childcare whilst on many occasions making her life unhappy and for some of the young girls, unbearable. A series of chapters relay the back story of the au pairs reasons for leaving the stability and family (or lack of it) in their home country , whilst allowing the reader insight into the cruelty and dysfunctional lives of the families they now work for. The early chapters briefly outline the fatal accident of a young child with an ongoing investigation of the circumstances. The excellent premise of the story was to some extent let down by a series of disjointed chapters, too many characters with meandering disjointed history that failed to grab the attention , and a lack of direction in delivery of any conclusion. Disappointed in that a good storyline became diluted in the telling, taking too long to hold attention of the reader intent on wanting answers to the mystery of the dead child. Many thanks to author publisher and NetGalley for ARC.

Very much a character driven book. The drama is revealed at the start so don’t look for lots of tension because there is none. The depth of information of so many characters didn’t always add much and although I loved reading the book I did find quite a lot of stereotypes. The style read like a book that had been translated into English and I was hoping the author was French so the shallow French women in the book wouldn’t be as embarrassing as they seemed.

Set in Paris and its affluent suburbs with a back drop of the terrorist attacks of 2015 is an unusual mystery involving Au Pairs mainly from USA. The book starts with a fatal accident at the Chauvet residence and the storyline is then pulled together through various threads. We get to know Au Pairs from various households and discover some of their secrets and failings as well as those of their hosts before the truth behind the accident is discovered.
Very well written on a slow burn I found the premise quite absorbing. I did find the ending a little abrupt but maybe the author is leaving room to continue.