The housemaid from Freida McFadden

 This was an awful read in the beginning but it got better as I went along. It took a while but I managed to find a good part of the book interesting and I ended the book being somewhat satisfied.

The beginning has a lot to be desired. The main character is very repetitive and it came to a point that her lines were so cringe I had to close the book just to make a mental pause. She starts off as a desperate woman, someone who we are supposed to feel empathy. She wants to be liked, she wants to get this amazing job however she does not put in the work. She is desperate for this job and yet she zooms out of the conversation just to look over the furniture and the living area. She wants to go under the radar to avoid problems so she makes up a lie and is never clear about anything. Really that whole thing with the glasses was so dramatic. She then goes off with the whole crush thing and how handsome he is. I did a drinking game over how many times she said the word handsome, (please don't do this) I didn't get alcoholic coma or anything but I can say I got happy enough to realize I had to stop.

Thankfully when we get to part 2 things change. The writing becomes better. We get to see the beginning of the story from the point of view of Nina and she is so much better than any other character. She had her mind working all the time. Her version of events was written in a way that we could feel sympathy, we could feel angry over the injustice set upon her. Furthermore the best bit in my opinion, she is consistent, she wants an out and she does not forget the main goal is to get her daughter away from the monster.

Now let's stop the dragging and go straight to the "villain", it was predictable to say the bare minimum. I think even a blind person could tell that one person gushes another with so many compliments something is bound to be hidden under the surface. Obviously the man of the house would have been taught by his over-powering mother to be a sociopath with control issues. He needs the hair to be perfect, nails, outfits, behaviours and all that. He needs his companion to care about that as well and he needs her to be perfect even though that no one will see her cause he makes sure she has nothing to do besides staying home. So yes his character did not develop, did not get background story, and did not get reasons or explanations over how he got to be the way he was.

The only other man in the story is the obvious handsome guy who doesn't "speak" a word of English. Oh please can we stop with the unnecessary theatrics. He could have said everything to the main character when she gave him a glass of water. He could have warned her that it wasn't Nina it was the idiot who she was crushing on. And that whole thing going on between him and Nina was predictable from a mile away.

Nina was the best character out of the whole book, her daughter wasn't developed much but I can see how her bipolar behaviour was needed for the character. She would behave to her mother and "dad" but would rebel against the only other person who she did have control over as a way to feel power. Yes, she is a child however let's not forget this child was used as manipulation to control the mother. Like the man kept a pot of the stuff she was allergic too just to threaten his wife to behave or else he would make her daughter choke with that stuff.

Literally this book was written to torture Nina, make her strong in a very unnecessary way and then make the main character have a job as the killer of bad husbands in the rich living areas.

Overall was a tough read, but by the second part it got better enough to earn itself 3 stars.