Review: The Perfect Guests by Emma Rous

The USA Today bestselling author of The Au Pair returns with another delicious, twisty novel--about a grand estate with many secrets, an orphan caught in a web of lies, and a young woman playing a sinister game.

1988. Beth Soames is fourteen years old when her aunt takes her to stay at Raven Hall, a rambling manor in the isolated East Anglian fens. The Averells, the family who lives there, are warm and welcoming, and Beth becomes fast friends with their daughter, Nina. At times, Beth even feels like she's truly part of the family...until they ask her to help them with a harmless game--and nothing is ever the same.

2019. Sadie Langton is an actress struggling to make ends meet when she lands a well-paying gig to pretend to be a guest at a weekend party. She is sent a suitcase of clothing, a dossier outlining the role she is to play, and instructions. It's strange, but she needs the money, and when she sees the stunning manor she'll be staying at, she figures she's got nothing to lose.

In person, Raven Hall is even grander than she'd imagined--even with damage from a fire decades before--but the walls seem to have eyes. As day turns to night, Sadie starts to feel that there's something off about the glamorous guests who arrive, and as the party begins, it becomes chillingly apparent their unseen host is playing games with everyone...including her.

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What I thought about The Perfect Guests

When Beth arrives at Raven Hall in 1988, she's not sure if she wants to stay... or run. She's in a bit of a tenuous place, having lost her family in an accident and with an aunt who travels, Raven Hall and her new family is better than living in the group home.  So she gives it a chance. Markus and Leonora's daughter Nina is nice most of the time, but there are some odd goings on at Raven Hall that concern her. 

Fast forward to 2019. Actress Sadie Langton is invited to play a part at a weekend murder mystery party set at... Raven Hall.  Turns out it has just been renovated from a mysterious incident.  The money is good and Sadie is all-in until things start getting weird starting with thinking she may be poisoned and the faint smell of smoke and the strange participants in the weekend game.

Told in alternating story lines, Nina and Beth's story is gradually revealed.  At first, it doesn't seem too complicated and I was wondering what I was missing.  Most of the good stuff happens in the final chapters of the book, and the rest is a meandering visit through time. My head is still reeling from the reveals in this book, and I may need to make a chart to figure it all out!

I liked this story and the strange characters and like good mystery and suspense tale, I want to go back and re-read so I can find all the clues that I missed along the way.  I did think the pace of the first half was a bit slow for me and all the great reveals came at the end as the group unravels the story for themselves. That part I did like -- I felt I was right along side the characters figuring out what was going on.

If you like a good family-oriented mystery/thriller with lots of secrets set in a spooky old gothic location, you might just like this story.  I did!

An ARC was provided by the publisher. This is my honest review.

 

About the Author

Emma Rous is the USA Today bestselling author of The Au Pair. She grew up in England, Indonesia, Kuwait, Portugal and Fiji, and from a young age she had two ambitions: to write stories, and to look after animals. She studied veterinary medicine and zoology at the University of Cambridge, and worked as a small animal veterinarian for eighteen years before starting to write fiction. Emma lives near Cambridge in England with her husband and three sons, and she now writes full time.

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Review: The Au Pair by Emma Rous

A grand estate, terrible secrets, and a young woman who bears witness to it all. If V. C. Andrews and Kate Morton had a literary love child, Emma Rous’ The Au Pair would be it.
 
Seraphine Mayes and her twin brother Danny were born in the middle of summer at their family’s estate on the Norfolk coast. Within hours of their birth, their mother threw herself from the cliffs, the au pair fled, and the village thrilled with whispers of dark cloaks, changelings, and the aloof couple who drew a young nanny into their inner circle.

Now an adult, Seraphine mourns the recent death of her father. While going through his belongings, she uncovers a family photograph that raises dangerous questions. It was taken on the day the twins were born, and in the photo, their mother, surrounded by her husband and her young son, is beautifully dressed, smiling serenely, and holding just one baby.

Who is the child and what really happened that day?
One person knows the truth, if only Seraphine can find her.

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What I thought about The Au Pair

In this gothic suspense tale, Seraphine Mayes searches for her beginnings after finding a picture that disrupts everything she knows about her family.   I really can't say more than what's in the blurb because you'll want to experience this story yourself -- most of the fun here is from the gradual unveiling of what really happened at Summerbourne.

The story is told in alternating points of view -- a chapter from Seraphine in the current time and then a chapter from the au pair in her time, with the creepy cool Summerbourne estate as the place where it all happens. I really did love how this story was told.  It made the events from the past seen up close and personal .  

It takes a few chapters to get to the good stuff, and you'll probably guess some of what is going on, but there was enough to keep me reading and I was a bit surprised with some of the twists and turns that come furiously fast in the final chapters.  I did like the quicker pace of the second half of the book.

There's a great cast of secondary characters in The Au Pair.  I particularly loved Edwin -- he was a bright star among the darkness at Summerbourne in both the early days and current day. His childhood friend Joel was a lovely surprise as well.  The story really revolves around the circumstances of Seraphine and Danny's birth, and as someone who primarily reads contemporary romance, it was nice to have some relationship material in the story as well.

I really did like The Au Pair.  I love a good gothic thriller and The Au Pair hit the bullseye for me. I did find the beginning a bit slow, and there were a few scenes that I would have liked "more" from, but overall, this was a satisfying gothic suspense story that I enjoyed reading.

An ARC was provided for review.

About the Author


Emma Rous is Cambridge University graduate who spent eighteen years working as a veterinary surgeon. She is now writing full-time, and lives with her husband and three school-age sons.