#BlogTour – #BookReview of #TheNesting by C.J. Cooke @CJessCooke @RandomTTours @fictionpubteam #RandomThingsTours

I’m pleased to welcome you today to my stop on the blog tour for chilling gothic thriller The Nesting by C.J. Cooke. Thank you to Anne Cater and Harper Collins for giving me the opportunity to read and review this wonderful book.

About the book:

The grieving widower. The motherless daughters. A beautiful house in the woods. And a nanny come to save the day….

So what if Lexi isn’t telling the truth about who she is? Escaping to the remote snows of Norway was her lifeline. And all she wanted was to be a part of their lives.

But soon, isolated in that cold, creaking house in the middle of ancient, whispering woods, Lexi’s fairytale starts to turn into a nightmare.

With darkness creeping in from the outside, Lexi’s fears are deepening. Lexi knows she needs to protect the children in her care.

But protect them from what?

About the author:

C.J. Cooke is an acclaimed, award-winning poet, novelist and academic with numerous other publications under the name of Carolyn Jess-Cooke.

Born in Belfast, she has a PhD in Literature from Queen’s University, Belfast, and is currently Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Glasgow, where she researches creative writing interventions for mental health.

She also founded the Stay-At-Home Festival.

My Review:

The Nesting by C.J. Cooke is an atmospheric and haunting gothic thriller that held me in its thrall from beginning to end. From the cover alone I knew I was going to be in for a chilling read and it did not disappoint! The perfect read for Halloween, The Nesting is one of those books where you’re never quite sure what is going to happen next. There’s an eeriness to the tale that is so deliciously creepy it sends shivers up and down your spine, leaving you with an uneasy feeling as you turn the pages, desperate to find out where the story is going to lead.

Tom Faraday, a successful architect, is looking for a nanny to take care of his two children whilst he finishes a building project in Norway. Overhearing a conversation on a train, Lexi decides to apply for the position, using someone else’s identity to do so. But after a failed suicide attempt and the breakdown of her relationship with boyfriend, David, Lexi believes this job is exactly the opportunity she’s been searching for. So she packs up her meagre belongings, changes her name and leaves for a new life in Norway as nanny to Tom’s two adorable daughters, Gaia and Coco.

But the Faradays are not all they seem. And their secluded home in Norway is not the dream home Lexi was hoping for. Instead it’s a house full of dark secrets and soon Lexi begins to see and hear things that can’t possibly be there. The chilling sense of foreboding slowly increases with every page and Lexi knows she must do everything in her power to protect the two little girls in her care, who she finds herself becoming increasingly fond of with each passing day.

And then there is Aurelia, a voice from the past who tells the story of what happened to the family before Lexi’s arrival. Switching seamlessly between then and now, the story is dark and atmospheric, the intricate plot steeped in Nordic mythology and fairytales, bringing an almost dreamlike quality to the tale.

C.J. Cooke has written a haunting gothic thriller that is filled to the brim with intrigue and suspense. Lexi is a character you can’t help but care about and root for, her love for the two little girls in her care bringing out a strength and determination you would never have expected from her at the start of the story.

The Nesting is a chilling tale that once started you will not want to put down. It is dark and addictive, with a story that will have you enthralled from beginning to end. The cold, creaking house in the middle of ancient, whispering woods is a character in its own right, the haunting and claustrophobic feel of the setting chilling me to the bone as I read.

The perfect read for this time of year, The Nesting is a dark and atmospheric gothic thriller that I would highly recommend.

The Nesting by C.J. Cooke is available to purchase now: Amazon UK

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