Definitely one for fans of Big Little Lies. Quite absorbing, but sometimes hard to follow some of the characters as it's such a big cast.

This novel was set in recent Paris, at the time of the 2015 terrorist attacks. However it is the story of au pairs from different parts of the world. The focus of the book is about the lives of several women, often told over many years. It took me a while to connect them all but eventually that became more obvious.
I needed to finish the book and didn't feel I could skip anything. I didn't want to miss important connections. Early on I understood that a young boy died but how and why took me a long time to work out. Somehow the young boy's death became part of the women's lives. It's complicated and an unusual way of looking at things. The death of a child usually is centred around the parent and yet this is not the case here. The importance of belonging is the theme that is weaved throughout the story and this is central to the story. The book is emotional and in places quite sad.
A good debut novel. I look forward to more by this author.

It's not often that I don't finish a book but I only got to 52% on this one. At 30% in I thought to myself that I would persevere with it. At 40% I decided to read until 50% and stop if it didn't drastically improve. At 50% reluctantly I began to consider that there was no recovery with the book. At 52%, I put myself out of my misery!

Written at a snail's pace. Too many similar and ordinary characters. Too many better reads out there. Sorry, not for me!

Following the sudden death of her young charge, Alena, the family au pair is arrested.
The Caretakers delves into the lives of Alena and five women associated with her in the period leading up to the tragedy. The stories unfold slowly, starting with Lou, the au pair next door, moving onto Charlotte, bereaved mother and Alena’s employer, then Holly, Lou’s friend, Geraldine, French teacher at the au pairs’ college and finally Nathalie, Charlotte’s teenage daughter, all of whom have pain in their lives.
Amanda Bestor Siegal has produced a well written account of the unrelenting life of an au pair, living in a foreign country, with a strange family, with around the clock badly paid job. Not only does she show in-depth knowledge of this existence, she also demonstrates her understanding of the need for love and what can happen when it is withdrawn.
As the book continues, the tragedy of each character is almost lost in the shadow of the next.
This read is full of wisdom and sadness and some strands of hope and resilience. I just loved it.

3.5 rounded down

This novel has an interesting premise as it examines the experience of American au pairs in an affluent Parisian suburb. It starts with a fatal accident at the Chauvet home and through interviews and multiple points of view we eventually learn the truth of what has occurred.

Much against my initial expectation, I do find myself being pulled into the storyline despite how truly awful some of the characters are. Through these various perspectives we see the truth of Philip Larkins famous poem about mums and dads. The damage, the dysfunctionality and the dynamics are really good. The characters are mostly interesting even though not easy to like and there’s a good range from selfish to enigmatic to mysterious. It’s a good portrayal of the challenges these American au pair‘s face not only with the children but also the language and an immensely different culture. It’s a good portrait of the core of what it is like to be French, the spirit of Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité and how this impacts on its people, what life is like in the suburbs and it shines a light on class and culture. In the background and at one point very much in the forefront is the devastating terrorist attacks of 2015/16 and its effect on France and on various characters.

However, despite the above I have a number of reservations although I can’t deny the book is well written. At the start of the book the tone strikes a very discordant note as a serious event has occurred but the language seems at odds with that. On occasion it has the feel of a French farce which also seems wrong. There are multiple points of you leading to too many characters and I’m uncertain of what at least to actually brings to the table. Each character has a backstory which are way too long so what happens at the Chauvet household gets lost. This causes the pace to become very slow and at times I’m drifting to boredom. The chapters – can you call them that? They are MUCH too long and that means the route we take to get to what we want to know is circuitous.

It’s definitely not a thriller, yes there’s a soupçon of mystery but it is an interesting character driven study and an exploration of dysfunction and parental responsibility.

With thanks to NetGalleyShelf and Little Brown Book Group for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.

This book was for me difficult to immerse into, I found it long drawn out and felt like there was a better story within it, not yet discovered. I did read to the end but found myself drifting and distracted, I loved the idea just not the actual novel

Brilliant, what a fantastic book this was, I loved reading about the nannies and their charges, and thought it was a brilliant plot, I raced through it without a seconds thought and am looking forward to more from the author!!

Nothing really happens but everything happens.
If that doesn't make sense then you need to read it.
Someone dies but who did it? It isn't a thriller or a murder mystery & the answer creeps up on you, it also doesn't make much difference to the story.
A well written story against a beautiful back drop let's you inside the life of foreign au-pairs and their lives living & working in around Paris.
The Caretakers is worth a read

This feels like a narrative rather than a story and I lost interest. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me review this book.

Not a thriller, but a series of well-written character studies of au pairs and families in a Paris suburb. Ideal for fans of literary fiction.

This novel resonated with me because at one point in my youner life I was very close to moving to a South American country to do exactly this and that was because I was bored and unfulfilled at home!

I agree with some of the other reviews in that the characters (au pairs) are a bit drab and I was struggling to find my favourite character, however the world of an au pair is something exotic to me so I more enjoyed learning about their employers and what they get up to.
An excellent setting in the suburbs of Paris, and dysfunctional families ticks a box for me also. It's slow and steady and reminds me somewhat of The Virgin Suicides and Rooney's normal people.

I loved this book. Young women have chosen to start their working lives in the role as an au pair - living with moderately rich families in Paris. They live with the family and are allegedly treated as one of the family, receiving a small allowance and some free time. Part of their contract is that they enrol in French class, in the hope that they will learn to speak fluent French. But like all families, all is not perfect; there are neglectful parents; adulterous parents; jealous parents. There is also the French 'etiquette', which despite appearances, is not an easy-going natural phenomena. The au pairs from the USA get a lot of support from their French teacher - but one day, a terrible accident happens to one of the children, a young boy - and all eyes fall on the au pair. The book contains a few French colloquialisms which could be mystifying, but overall a very good read.

I found this book to be a bit boring. The characters are all flawed but none of them evoke any feelings in you. They all appear to be pretty self-obsessed. Any event in the book which, in my opinion, could have been built on and made the book a bit exciting just happened and then was moved on from. None of the characters had any depth with perhaps the exception of Alina. Had I not been reviewing the book then I would have given up after a couple of chapters.

This is a an extended account of the experiences of au pairs working in a suburb of Paris. The young women seem to be there because they don’t know what to do with themselves at home so arrive with many personal issues. Then they appear to be allocated to families which are equally dysfunctional. The children they are looking after are low down their list of priorities and, not surprisingly given their families, are also troubled. The story gives a lot of detail about where the au pairs came from, what the families they are with in
France are up to. There is no excitement, just detail of people with problem lives. There is no climax to hold your breath for. I found it to be a long and pointless read.

This was a very interesting and at times almost unbearably moving novel. Set in a specific time in Paris, it explores the world of the au pairs who cross the world to look after other people's children. It explores the world of relationships within families, between mothers and their children and the young girls, barely more than children themselves, who act as substitutes.
The prose was at times a little too lush for me, and it certainly was not a whodunnit in any conventional sense, but a memorable novel. Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers and the author herself for the opportunity to review an ARC.

What a different Parisian novel! It's so good to step away from Emily in Paris and to see the other side of the glitzy capital - the real, raw and honest side of it. I felt for these women, their humble and challenging experiences. It was a beautifully written and felt novel, very emotive and moving.

This story revolves around a group of au pairs and their host families, living in an affluent suburb of Paris.

Along with the tragedy that occurs at the start of the book, we are given meandering and long winded insights into the different characters. Some of the back stories are far too long and I did tend to lose interest at times.

The culture of employing au pairs was interesting, and I’m sure some of it must be true to life, but all these families were so dysfunctional and the au pairs disillusioned. It was difficult to say who were the worst, young women with little or no experience looking after young children or the parents who were just odd! I definitely wouldn’t want any of these girls looking after my family, so in that respect the author has certainly caused a reaction!

The length of the chapters about uninteresting characters spoilt an otherwise good story.

Thank you NetGalley.

Book given free by Netgalley

This is Amanda's Debut novel and it very good. Set in a wealthy area of Paris, where families hire Au paires from all around the world.

The story is told about 6 women, 3 American Au Paires, that have come to Paris searching for something, two women who hired them and a French teacher, who runs a school for foreign Au Paires to learn French to fit into their host families.

The story is told before and after a dreadful incident with one of the children occur.

I really enjoyed the book, and will be on the look out for this Author's subsequent books. It shows all walks of life, and just because your rich doesn't mean your any happier than poor people.

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes looking at social interaction and how people fit into each others world's

An absolutely beautiful if sad read, set in the affluent western suburbs of Paris it tells the story of a death of a boy in the care of an au pair. The story is beautifully told with a masterful handling of French attitudes and culture that never feels forced. The characters and their stories are so beautifully developed it makes for an engrossing read. Highly recommend.

Thank you to NetGalley, Amanda Bestor-Siegal and the publisher for providing me with a free copy of this in exchange for an honest review.

What I loved most about this book was the honest portrayal of life in Paris. It is particularly focused on the struggles of the au pair's, but also heavily focuses on the families they work for. Each and every one of them has a backstory of what they sacrificed in order to move to Paris.

After the death of Julien, a 9-year-old boy, it is revealed how every action has led to this tragedy and leaves you questioning who is to blame throughout.