The Housemaid series is without a doubt one of the most popular thriller series out there. If you ever check the top-selling books on the Amazon Kindle store, one of the first two Housemaid books will inevitably be on there. So when The Housemaid is Watching was announced and I saw that it was going to be coming out in paperback on launch day, I pre-ordered it in almost every form you could (audiobook, kindle and paperback). And here are my thoughts…
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The Housemaid is Watching picks up about ten or eleven years after The Housemaid’s Secret. Millie is now married with two children and is moving into a house she never thought she’d be able to afford. Everything seems too good to be true, could it be that she’s finally catching a lucky break, or could everything be going a little too easy again?
The Housemaid is Watching plot – 4.25/5
The Housemaid is Watching felt very different from the previous books in the series. You see, rather than this book being mostly about Millie and her own journey and feeling almost like a single-player book, The Housemaid is Watching feels much more like a family story.
Yes, the story is told from the point of view of Millie (for the most part) but because she now has a family, it feels like there is a lot more of a family dynamic to the whole plot.
Without giving away too many spoilers (as I know that’s why we read these sorts of books) there’s definitely an ongoing sense of tension throughout the story that you get from all of McFadden’s books. Lots of questions come up that only seem to have one possible answer but then are shown to have a slightly different answer for example.
I wouldn’t say this quite hit the same heights in terms of the fear factor the other books delivered as I was never really sure where it was going. It seemed to be more about a man potentially cheating on his wife than a thriller like before. But the more wholesome factor made it up for me.
The Housemaid is Watching characters – 4.25/5
My favourite thing about this latest book in the series was, as I mentioned above, the fact that this book felt more like a family effort. Yes, Millie has things to combat and huge life-changing issues arise but this time she has a family around her who are either there to help or there to bring her back down to earth when things get a bit nervy.
Millie is her usual self – she’s confident and willing to fight for those she loves and herself but she’s also kind and careful about what she says and does around her children. Enzo, her now husband, on the other hand, is the usual sensitive and sweet guy but has a slightly different parenting style, telling the children they should stick up for themselves with force rather than words.
The two children were brilliant! Simply due to the series in general, I was cautious of them the whole way through and both their development and their personalities actually added something to the story and added to the dynamic of Millie having to tackle motherhood as her children grew older.
The Housemaid is Watching final rating – 4.25/5
The Housemaid is Watching is both a book you could love because you loved the previous two and also a book you could despise. If you enjoy Millie and want to see where life has taken her ten years later and how this affects how she deals with things, you’ll love this book. But if you’re someone who’s seeking that clever twist and constant crashing plot points, you may find yourself disappointed. Is The Housemaid is Watching the best in the series? No. But it still felt great to pick up with Millie in what definitely felt like the continuation of a series this time instead of a possible standalone.
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