The Woman in my Home by Kerry Fisher
Published: May 20, 2022
Bookouture
Pages: 319
Genre: Psychological Fiction
KKECReads Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I received a copy of this book for free, and I leave my review voluntarily.
Kerry Fisher is an internationally bestselling author of women’s contemporary fiction, including The Woman I Was Before, The Silent Wife (USA Today bestseller), and Other People’s Marriages, as well as a non-fiction memoir, Take My Hand. She was born in Peterborough, studied French and Italian at the University of Bath, and spent many years living in Spain, Italy, and France. After returning to England to work as a journalist, she eventually abandoned real-life stories for the secrets of fictional families. She now lives in Surrey with her husband, with an intermittent empty nest as her two young adult children come and go.
Finally, Cath has met someone: a man she loves, Robin, and who adores her in return. And after years of managing fine on her own, running a successful business, raising her son, and caring for her elderly mother, she feels she deserves some happiness. And who better to provide it than charming, fun-loving Robin?
She expected everyone to be delighted for her. But her friends and family are suspicious of Robin. And Rebecca, a desperate single mother who Cath has hired as a live-in housekeeper, doesn’t trust him either. He’s too slick, he’s too perfect and it all happened too fast… how well does Cath really know him?
Cath is used to taking care of herself; she’s nobody’s fool. But when things start to go wrong in the house that’s been her haven for all these years, she’s forced to ask herself whether the man she loves is really what he seems… And having let Rebecca in to every part of her life, is Cath ready to face the secrets she might find there?
“The more indispensable I could make myself, the better.”
Rebecca is trying to process the fact that her husband squandered all of their money and caused them to lose their house. She winds up working as a carer and cleaner for a wealthy businesswoman. Cath thinks she has it all, a thriving business, which allows her to take care of her mother and son, and the love of her new man. Things could not be better. Until things go missing from her mother’s house, and suddenly her quaint life is anything but.
The last half of this novel was better than the first half. I enjoyed the pacing and the build-up. I spent the first half of this novel disliking one of the main characters, which made reading her difficult.
The plot was well done, and I enjoyed how realistically things were portrayed. I liked Rebecca and the fact that she was trying to take care of her kids. She was a great character.
Cath was shallow and quite frustrating for me. I didn’t like reading about how to put out she felt when her mother or son needed help because she just wanted to sleep with her new boyfriend. Her character does come around and redeems herself, but for the bulk of the novel, she is not a likable character.
I enjoyed how this played out. The way the truth was revealed and the way pieces fell into place was very well done. I loved the idea of the cleaner being the one to really see what was happening, despite having her own issues happening.
The last half of this book was intense and made putting the book down impossible. I loved reading about the women coming together to get things done.
This was a good read. I enjoyed the suspense and the intensity and appreciated that there was a different aspect to the thriller genre being delivered.