Nanny Needed by Georgina CrossMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
A young woman takes a job as a nanny for an impossibly wealthy family, thinking she's found her entre into a better life--only to discover instead she's walked into a world of deception and dark secrets.
Nanny needed. Discretion is of the utmost importance. Special conditions apply.
When Sarah Larsen finds the notice, posted on creamy card stock in her building's lobby, one glance at the exclusive address tells her she's found her ticket out of a dead-end job--and life.
At the interview, the job seems like a dream come true: a glamorous penthouse apartment on the Upper West Side of NYC; a salary that adds several zeroes to her current income; the beautiful, worldly mother of her charge, who feels more like a friend than a potential boss. She's overjoyed when they offer her the position and signs the NDA without a second thought.
In retrospect, the notice in her lobby was less an engraved invitation than a waving red flag. For there is something very strange about the Bird family. Why does the beautiful Mrs. Bird never leave the apartment alone? And what happened to the nanny before her? It soon becomes clear that the Birds' odd behaviors are more than the eccentricities of the wealthy.
But by then it's too late for Sarah to seek help. After all, discretion is of the utmost importance.
--
I'd been aware of Georgina Cross as an amazing thriller/suspense writer for quite a while, and I'd grabbed a couple of her novels when I saw them in a Bookbub mailing, and I don't know why I hadn't picked up one before now. What prompted me to do so is that I'm currently working on my MFA novel, which is a domestic psychological thriller for adults, and my supervisor has been teaching me methodology for scene structure. His recommendation was to read a handful of novels in my genre and pay attention to pacing, delivery of story beats, and structures. So, I browsed my kindle app and began with Nanny Needed.
I am used to YA thrillers in particular being fast right from the start (as this is what I mainly read and write), and the first thing that struck me about the opening of Nanny Needed is how measured and almost 'careful' it was in its delivery of information. It wasn't until we got to about 20% in that we found out the 'truth' about the child that Sarah is to be nanny for. And this just gave me an aha-moment. It told me what I'd been doing wrong in my adult psych thriller, as I had my first story beat happening at about 5%.
Therefore, as I kept reading, I found that I was plotting out the structure as well, paying attention to the delivery and the pacing. This kind of makes my read seem analytical--but it was also SO MUCH FUN. I could not stop turning the pages. I simply had to know what was going to happen next, and it felt like the author was always one step ahead of me. Just when I thought I was working out what was happening, something else happened that threw me off track--yet, at the end, it all tied together perfectly. And that final twist--I was actually speechless. Never before has a book made me audibly gasp like that and stare around the room wide-eyed. I did NOT see that coming--and yet, I can see all the clues were there. In fact, I'd spotted some of the clues and I knew they were significant for the ending but at the time of encountering them, I just couldn't make sense of them.
The characterisation in this story is amazing. Collette in particular is fantastically written. In fact, every single character is. There's a really strong sense of place too, like I felt I could map out the events onto the specific locations all the time.
View all my reviews
I'd been aware of Georgina Cross as an amazing thriller/suspense writer for quite a while, and I'd grabbed a couple of her novels when I saw them in a Bookbub mailing, and I don't know why I hadn't picked up one before now. What prompted me to do so is that I'm currently working on my MFA novel, which is a domestic psychological thriller for adults, and my supervisor has been teaching me methodology for scene structure. His recommendation was to read a handful of novels in my genre and pay attention to pacing, delivery of story beats, and structures. So, I browsed my kindle app and began with Nanny Needed.
I am used to YA thrillers in particular being fast right from the start (as this is what I mainly read and write), and the first thing that struck me about the opening of Nanny Needed is how measured and almost 'careful' it was in its delivery of information. It wasn't until we got to about 20% in that we found out the 'truth' about the child that Sarah is to be nanny for. And this just gave me an aha-moment. It told me what I'd been doing wrong in my adult psych thriller, as I had my first story beat happening at about 5%.
Therefore, as I kept reading, I found that I was plotting out the structure as well, paying attention to the delivery and the pacing. This kind of makes my read seem analytical--but it was also SO MUCH FUN. I could not stop turning the pages. I simply had to know what was going to happen next, and it felt like the author was always one step ahead of me. Just when I thought I was working out what was happening, something else happened that threw me off track--yet, at the end, it all tied together perfectly. And that final twist--I was actually speechless. Never before has a book made me audibly gasp like that and stare around the room wide-eyed. I did NOT see that coming--and yet, I can see all the clues were there. In fact, I'd spotted some of the clues and I knew they were significant for the ending but at the time of encountering them, I just couldn't make sense of them.
The characterisation in this story is amazing. Collette in particular is fantastically written. In fact, every single character is. There's a really strong sense of place too, like I felt I could map out the events onto the specific locations all the time.
View all my reviews
