The Housemaid

Product Information

Every day I clean the Winchesters' beautiful house from top to bottom. I collect their daughter from school. And I cook a delicious meal for the whole family before heading up to eat alone in my tiny room on the top floor. In a Nutshell: A bit farfetched but it still provided me with almost everything I look for in a thriller. I was impressed by how the author could take such a typical plotline and develop it into a captivating story. Right from the prologue till the end, I couldn’t keep the book aside. This, despite the fact that the story was disturbing, creepy, weird, even OTT. But then an ad has been posted for a live-in maid with light duties. Millie interviews with the elegant wife/mother in her elegant house with her elegant handsome husband. Against all odds, Millie gets the job. But Nina, her new boss, is a bit "off". Nina has spent some time in a psychiatric hospital. She spins on a dime from day to day. Cecelia, nine years old, is spoiled rotten and lights up Millie every chance she gets. Millie feels sorry for Andrew, the husband, who is caught in this emotional blender on high speed.

As her months of being employed with the Winchester’s progress, Millie sees herself as being better than Nina and desires her lifestyle, as well as her husband. Every day I clean the Winchesters' beautiful house top to bottom. I collect their daughter from school. And I cook a delicious meal for the whole family before heading up to eat alone in my tiny room on the top floor. Everything about this book is just perfection, it also has short chapters which I love, meaning you can always read "one more chapter". The characters were great too, I loved Millie, she is such a bad ass! I loved more characters as the book went on but won't say too much as I want to keep my review spoiler free. AND IF YOU HAVE READ THIS BOOK, PUT DOWN WHATEVER YOU’RE READING AND GRAB ANOTHER FREIDA MCFADDEN BOOK!! As always, not much to say about a thriller without spoiling anything (that would just be bad), but let's sum up the thoughts.

I did not like Nina. She was over the top, selfish, and illogical. I can't feel sorry for what she went through because .... No spoilers.... but if you read it, you'll know.

I try to ignore how Nina makes a mess just to watch me clean it up. How she tells strange lies about her own daughter. And how her husband Andrew seems more broken every day. But as I look into Andrew’s handsome brown eyes, so full of pain, it’s hard not to imagine what it would be like to live Nina’s life. The walk-in closet, the fancy car, the perfect husband. The daughter Cece is a capital B.R.A.T. and later in the book the mom’s just like ‘oh, you know…that’s just how she is!’ All in all, this was my first book by this author but I don’t think it will be my last. Despite the minor shortcomings, this book kept me largely satisfied. Since I am not an avid contemporary thriller reader, I cannot tell you if the plot is similar to any of the other recent domestic thrillers in the market. But I know that I was quite happy with it. Definitely recommended if you are looking for an entertaining commercial thriller. First of all, the tagline "From behind closed doors, she sees everything" must have been chosen by someone who never read the book, because it couldn't be farther from the truth: Millie goes through the novel blissfully unaware of everything that happens around her, be it behind closed doors or not. Even the most telegraphed plot twists somehow catch her by surprise, despite all the warning signs and the not-so-cryptic warnings she receives from other characters. The only ones who see everything from behind closed doors are Andrew and Enzo, and how sad it is that a novel written by a woman, with a woman as a protagonist, should depict both its female main characters as such hapless damsels in distress?

There are also a few convenient coincidences. (Then again, these are found in almost every thriller, which is why I don’t read much of this genre.) Nina & Andrew Winchester have the perfect home Andrew has his dream job & they have a daughter Cecilia who goes to a private school, they both decide to hire a nanny to take care of their huge home & Cecilia, so Nina interviews Millie who has been living in her car& finding it hard to make ends meet she was fired from her job at a burger joint& thinks the nanny job would suit her down to the ground. She gets the jobNina welcomes her to the family she is delightful at first but Nina has a dark side that when you cross her things start to go to hell. I try to ignore how Nina makes a mess just to watch me clean it up. How she tells strange lies about her own daughter. And how her husband Andrew seems more broken every day. But as I look into Andrew's handsome brown eyes, so full of pain, it's hard not to imagine what it would be like to live Nina's life. The walk-in closet, the fancy car, the perfect husband.

Honestly... I'm confusion. This is how I felt after I read The Trapped Wife by Samantha Hayes. On one hand, this was garbagio, on the other hand, it had some things that kept me reading and enjoying myself. It's a book I love to hate and hate to love all at once. Ok, let me try to make sense of thoughts: I was all about the five star on this one, but I moved it down to 4.5 and rounded down because of three things. If this is the part of the job where i find out cecelia has actually been dead for ten years and is a ghost, i’m quitting. There is a dark humour underlying Millie’s narration, I liked those random funny moments even when the proceedings were not hilarious at all. When she learns a dirty little secret about Nina's past and gets warned by the hot, candy-like landscaper Enzo, who unfortunately speaks only Italian, she realizes that by accepting this job, she may be putting her life in danger. Especially when it's so tempting to get seduced by Mr. Winchester, while his wife watches them like a jealous hawk, ready to tear her limbs apart. Oh, Millie, you've found yourself in another prison you can't escape, haven't you?

i think these quotes sum up how i feel about this little girl. not only was she creepy, but she was such a little brat omg. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this novel for an honest review. It has been published in April 2022.

Millie has recently gotten out of prison and is on the hunt for a job. She lives in her car, tired of the bar, and can’t even get a job in fast food. She's in her 20s and is gorgeous, but wears glasses and clothes to lessen her appeal, so others don't think she’s too pretty to work there. She interviews with Nina Winchester for a job as their housemaid and live-in nanny. Nina is a stay at home wife/mom, seems to only dress in white, slightly overweight, and appears to be very sophisticated. The first person works well in this story. While there is a little rambling (one can't escape that entirely in first person povs, unfortunately), it reveals the thoughts and intentions of the characters well and also creates a nice mystery about the speaker of the prologue. PLOT: Millie really needed a job. She interviewed for a housekeeper position with Nina Winchester, who has a husband and a daughter. Never in her wildest dreams, did she ever think that she would get the job. Welcome to the family,” Nina Winchester says as I shake her elegant, manicured hand. I smile politely, gazing around the marble hallway. Working here is my last chance to start fresh. I can pretend to be whoever I like. But I’ll soon learn that the Winchesters’ secrets are far more dangerous than my own… In Part One, Nina Winchester is looking for a maid to clean, help out with her daughter Cecilia, and perhaps prepare a meal on occasion. The person she hires will need to be desperate for a job, and have CERTAIN personality traits.The blurb doesn’t do justice to the book and totally misrepresents it. It also contains minor spoilers. Thankfully, I read the blurb only after completing the book. Sure, I realize this story is meant to be taken with a grain of salt, preferably served on buttered popcorn, 🍿 but, the last two parts were too crazy for my taste! And what about the "translating apps" that Millie mentions in the very beginning of the book, hoping that they'll help her communicate with Enzo, except then she never uses them, never mentions them again and spends the rest of the novel complaining that she has no way of communicating with Enzo?