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4.2 out of 5
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Tabby2018
3.0 out of 5 stars Depressing book
Reviewed in the United States on October 25, 2020
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*Book purchased by me, not given free for review.

I have read every single book by S.E. Lynes and enjoyed them all. Until this one.

The writing is great, as always. The characters are distinctly written, the story draws you in. But in the case of this book, those weren’t enough ...

I found myself skipping many pages at a time due to the redundant chapters. On and on and on with the circling thoughts of the main character. My interest didn’t pick up until I was about 60% in, because finally, there was some action. But by that time, despite feeling empathy over what the characters were going through, I just felt no connection with any of them.

The twists towards the end were ludicrous to me, and I felt very cheated after slogging through the whole, monotonous story.

I’m also getting tired of the missing toddler trope so prevalent in the British suspense and psychological thriller genre. But I knew what it was about going in, so that’s on me, and I didn’t base any of my review on it.

I can understand why some readers reviewed this highly, but it just wasn’t for me.
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Dee K.
2.0 out of 5 stars Not a thriller...
Reviewed in the United States on November 2, 2020
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I'm not sure what is with all the 5 star reviews? Are people being paid for the reviews?
The story could have been great, had the the first half of the book not dragged out forever. I had to skim most of it out of boredom.
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Teresa M. Cook
1.0 out of 5 stars Tedious
Reviewed in the United States on November 11, 2020
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Author had a good storyline to develop but buried it for over half of the book with endless paragraphs of every thought and feeling the mother was experiencing. Truly, I found myself skimming over most of the book because of it, as well as losing all empathy for her, too. I am happy I didn't pay full price and regretting that I paid any money at all.
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Jen
4.0 out of 5 stars Great mystery and twists, sad story
Reviewed in the United States on October 23, 2020
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This is a really sad story with a good mystery. It centers on Ava, whose 2-year-old daughter Abi vanishes from her stroller in the doorway of her home while Ava was upstairs. A year passes and Ava can't move on, and regularly beats herself up for the mistake she made of leaving the door open allowing for Abi to get out. The first part of the book is rather slow, and repetitive, as Abi continues to be hard on herself and her husband Matt continues to help her get past her grief and guilt.

Then the neighbors have a housewarming party to show off their house that they have been renovating for the past year- everyone has connections to these neighbors- the wife has become somewhat of a friend to Ava, and Matt's best friend Neil is the builder who worked on the renovations. Ava has to be convinced to go, but when she does, there are a lot of alcohol-infused conversations that make her question what role others had to play in Abi's disappearance.

The book really picks up the pace at the point of the party and follows it through to the end. There are a lot of secrets and confessions and when the truth is revealed, it's really very heartbreaking. Lynes also throws in another twist just when you think you had everything figured out. Though the book started off a little slow for me, the ending made it all worth it and I know this is a story that will stick with me.

Overall, I'd recommend this book, though prepare to feel sad. I have liked everything Lynes has written and this is no exception. Thanks to Netgalley for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
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Julia MacGuire
5.0 out of 5 stars Best book I have read in a long time!
Reviewed in the United States on October 24, 2020
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I waited months for this book to come out. 10/23/20 finally came! Ava leaves her two year old daughter in strapped into her baby buggy while she goes up to get laundry. When Ava comes back down, the baby buggy is empty and the front door is open. Abi is missing! At a housewarming party a year later, Ava and Matthew pick up some hints about what might have happened to Abi. I read this book in a day. I highly recommend it!
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Kelly Woods
2.0 out of 5 stars Dull. Mostly a book describing feelings of grief.
Reviewed in the United States on December 2, 2020
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This book was incredibly dull except for the last 1/5. It could have started with the housewarming and been a short story. 3/4 of the book was given over to the mother's feelings of grief and inability to function after her loss. The husband was never allowed to really have a personality. We catch a glimpse of him toward the end but that is all. I would not waste my time reading this. The only reason I couldn't put it down is I was waiting for it to get interesting. Even the "housewarmng" was a bore. Just a big party with a few innuendos. Disappointing read.
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Barbara Welch
5.0 out of 5 stars When you think you have figured it out....you haven't.
Reviewed in the United States on November 1, 2020
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I purchased this book yesterday and could not put it down until I read every page. I was captivated from the first paragraph and my interest heightened with every twist and turn, of which there were many. I recommend this book to all adults who enjoy suspense without blood and gore. When you think you have it figured out, you haven't.
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Ellyn
5.0 out of 5 stars Clear your calendar!
Reviewed in the United States on November 5, 2020
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Unputdownable indeed! I finished this book in three very busy days, snatching moments because I just had to find out what had happened. Lynes has an uncanny way of delving into the minds of people undergoing unimaginable stress while not losing momentum. Half the time when I read books like this I find myself skimming the interior dialogue of characters because it's not pertinent but Lynes manages to further the plot by delving into her characters anxiety. She's also a wonderful wordsmith. Lucky for me she's written lots more!
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Top reviews from other countries

faysieh
5.0 out of 5 stars Shocking revelations. Missing or dead? Grief, loss, guilt, suspicion. Who will you believe?
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 27, 2020
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An incredible read.
You.Must.Read.This.Book.NOW!
Not only is this an entertaining and totally engrossing psychological read, it is emotionally intelligent, conveying line after line the horror and panic of a mother whose child suddenly disappears. The depth of emotion experienced by Abi's Mum Ava, her husband Matt, neighbours Neil and Bella Johnson and other neighbour Jen is rich, diverse and utterly compelling. I literally held my breath for Ava, running around the streets of Riverside Drive, desperate and terrified to locate 2 year old Abi having discovered the front door open and the buggy empty. I had physiological symptoms of racing heart and nausea, connecting immediately with grief stricken Ava, and my affinity with her simply deepened as the story unfolds.
We meet Ava one year after the events of that fateful early September morning but frequently travel back to the day itself. The power of the past, present and future colliding, of the way in which grief builds and rips apart what once was, hits the reader from the outset. I thoroughly enjoyed the switches in time, back and forth and I liked the use of multiple narrators, hearing from Matt, and later on others too.
The sense of not knowing whether your missing child is actually dead rather than simply presumed dead, or whether she has been snatched and is living a different life elsewhere is all consuming and written about so compassionately by SE Lynes. The trying to continue with life, keep a marriage surviving and exist through the pain to live day to day and yet all the while the events of one day are circulating endlessly in your head, over and over and over, leaps of the page in a word or two. A torture no parent ever wants to endure.
The plot is tight, fast paced and written to hold on to every reader in a vice like grip whilst remaining sensitive and intuitive. This is what makes the book so readable, because every character, their actions, motivations, and relationships with one another are minutely observed and you feel as if you too live in the same road, part of the community who should have been able to help Abi but who ultimately failed to do so because of the way in which we become way too absorbed in our own little pockets of life.
Friendships will be tested and many tears shed as Jen and Johnnie's housewarming party acts as a catalyst for some shocking revelations which eventually bring to light some inconsistencies that are very hard to face.
I will not write any more for fear of spoiling the plot and undermining some HUGE twists. They left me open mouthed and incredulous at how clever this plot is. Not only does the final section of the book leave one gasping, the truths also get you thinking about human behaviour and for me that is what makes a good book GREAT.
Thank you to the publishers, the author and Netgalley for a read I will not be forgetting in a hurry.
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C Knight
5.0 out of 5 stars The Housewarming
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 29, 2020
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OMG WHAT HAPPENED TO ABI?????? HOW CAN A TODDLER DISAPPEAR JUST LIKE THAT??! Yes I am shouting… it’s my befuddled mind’s reaction to The Housewarming and my first journey into the world of S. E. Lynes.

My heart broke with Ava’s. I can’t imagine one of my boys as a toddler vanishing without a trace. I’d be in bits, devastated. Not to mention blaming myself given the situation Ava found herself in. I don’t know how this woman coped with her life from the day Abi disappeared.

But then my heart broke again and again as the story developed. Ava’s life around her was crumbling as the anniversary of her daughter’s disappearance looms. Ava is still killing herself emotionally and mentally over Abi but you would wouldn’t you? Without closure, it’s so hard to move on.

Lynes’ writing took me by surprise; not entirely sure why, given I’ve heard nothing but rave reviews. But what I didn’t expect was to be gobbled up into the world she’d created, unable to escape. I was there in that street, I was Ava. I felt the torrid emotion that Ava felt as she lived life without her daughter, coping again as a new mum. And oh the party…

I have given myself a severe reprimand for failing to join the S E Lynes party before now. I’m in serious trouble with myself. The Housewarming has so many twists and turns throughout, I felt dizzy. She spins a serious web to confuse and intrigue a reader. Its an impressive art to perfect and Lynes has definitely done that with The Housewarming….

Now I need to squeeze in all my purchases of her back catalogue…..
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Emma's Biblio Treasures
5.0 out of 5 stars A sensational twisty thriller with heart
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 24, 2020
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"I am a woman who has a daughter. I am a woman who had a daughter. Both these things are true. I live in the past; I survive in the present."

Ava only left Abi alone for a few moments. But that was all it took for the two-year-old to wander off and vanish. She didn't realise she'd left the front door open or that she could unbuckle herself from her pushchair. She didn't know she would never see her again.

A year later Ava is struggling to accept her daughter's death and to live with the guilt she carries. When their neighbours invite them to their housewarming party, her husband Matt convinces her to go, saying it is time they start to rebuild their lives. But that night Ava discovers something that changes everything she thought she knew about the day Abi disappeared and makes her look at those around her in a new light.

Could the truth about her daughter's disappearance actually be more sinister than she believed?

"Second by second. Beat by beat. A metronome keeps time for the frantic melody of my life's unravelling. I watch myself from above. I shout out the things I should have done, places I should have looked, the order in which I should have done it all."

This was one of those books that I knew you're going to love immediately. The author drew me in from the first pages with her melodic prose that oozes with panic, fear and despair as she recalls the moment she found Abi was missing and frantically searched for her. She looks back scathingly at the decisions she made and the mistakes she sees as costing her daughter's life.

After that night at the party, the tension rises as Ava notices the inconsistencies and begins to doubt the things she believed about Abi's disappearance. A cloud of suspicion now hangs over those she never suspected as small details begin to reveal a dark and horrifying picture. As I approached the jaw-dropping finale, my heart was in my throat and I got book whiplash from all the twists and turns.

"It is simply that the party has pulled the plug on the weird, stagnant pond of our lives, has drained the water from details half submerged, which lie now in the shallows, exposed."

Compelling, heartbreaking and harrowing, this was impossible to put down. Lynes is a master of stories that have you on the edge of your seat but also full of heart.

Don't miss this sensational thriller.
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Mrs L N Timoney
5.0 out of 5 stars Compelling page-turner. Highly recommend!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 24, 2020
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In the outstanding The Housewarming S E Lynes starts with every parent’s worst nightmare - a missing child - and weaves a story so compelling that I feel I lived it.
Ava, mother to two year old Abi, recalls the morning of her daughter’s disappearance a year later, with forensic detail. The opening beats like a quickening heart as we are pulled into the story, and once she has us, she doesn’t let go until the final page.
I was, quite literally, aghast at the turns the narrative took. The pace was perfect as I followed Ava and husband Matt as they tried to work out what happened on that life-changing day. I was so invested that I clapped my hand over my mouth at the final reveal.
As I have come to expect from this author, the writing is as beautiful as it is accessible. Her description is so astute that the world she takes me to is in HD.
In addition to the compelling plot, this book is a deep dive into what it means to be part of a community, and the repercussions of prioritising you and yours over the greater good.
This book is a true page-turner. A stunning read. Highly recommend!
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Fran
5.0 out of 5 stars Gripping and heartbreaking
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 20, 2020
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I started The Housewarming whilst I was eating my breakfast this morning... and I’m afraid I ended up finishing a very soggy bowl of cereal. S. E. Lynes draws you into the story so quickly and effectively as you relive the worst day of Ava’s life right along with her. Maybe being a parent enhances the effect, but my heart was racing for a good while after starting. I loved that the first third, almost half, of the book had me so engrossed that my brain couldn’t even begin to start trying to figure things out.

The author really controls the story beautifully, and as I started to pick up little hints and clues in the plot, the characters would discover them right alongside me. The revelations came in such a way as to never give me enough to work out what had happened, just enough to will the characters onwards to bring the story to its resolution.

I also loved the way the characters were handled. Ava herself has become so defined and consumed by the events at the beginning of the story that there’s not much else to her - only hints and nods at the person she was before, and this feels totally right. The characters are, by and large, all shown by the way they interact with and relate to the people around them, not in isolation, which is not something I’m usually left considering.

Overall, in case you couldn’t tell, I loved this book. It entertained me, gripped me, carried me right along with the plot and left me thinking. There’s not much more I could ask for!
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