Nanny Dearest

  In  this blog post, I reviewed Flora Collins’s Nanny Dearest. This adult domestic suspense is riveting, dark and twisted with every turned page.  Susanna Keller’s life have been turned upside-down when her father died a year ago. At a chance encounter, she’s reunited with Annaliese “Annie” Whittaker, her former nanny she had when she was three years old. This reunion had brought back memories of her past and her turbulent childhood when she lost her mother from cancer. From Annie’s POV told in the 1990s from flashback, it all started from a simple job for her to take care of Suzy and the household, Suzy’s father was too busy with work and her mother didn’t pay close attention to her only daughter. She clapped her eyes on Suzy and prepared to insinuate into the family further. When Suzy mentions this to her friend Beth, she becomes leery and suspicious of her. The more she felt better about her life from quitting her job to alienating herself from her friends, she’s been sucked into Annie’s warped life like a cult survivor, believe everything she said was the truth about her childhood and her parents. Then she becomes suspicious of her and her actions, playing everyone like a fool, until she discovered the truth and prepared to confront her dead on. Though she denied it, Annie wanted Suzy for herself, driving a wedge into her life, wanting to make her for her own. With every little discovery she uncovered, she distanced herself from Annie and broken free from her hold until they had a final confrontation at her former home, which would blow you away.

This was a dark domestic suspense that’s captivating and gives you chills all over. I cared for Suzy on how she lost both her parents and had her friends to lean on, until Annie resurfaced into her life like a deadweight dummy.  Besides dealing with her grief, she was a sucker and a true believer on Annie’s lies about the past and how she destroyed her family. I loved how she stood up to her in the end. Annie, I had l liked in the beginning, but then I became suspicious of her and her motives, especially with her own niece and nephew. I loved the New York City area for the central location which had fantastic scenic settings, past and present.  The theme of the story is that don’t lie on who you are, or it would sneak up on you.

I loved how it dealt with grief and possibly mental health, which does hit close to home. It also showed the perception of how people view you and how you view others in the same light.  It gave me goosebumps and chills all over. My only nitpick was that we didn’t know Suzy’s parents first names until it was mentioned later in the story, when it should’ve been introduced in the first flashback. And African-American and Black are technically the same thing, when African-American should be the correct form to describe brown-skinned people. I rate this book, four out of five stars, because there were some thing I didn’t like what Annie did in Suzy’s life. This is recommended to everyone who loves to read domestic suspense and thriller novels.

If you love heart-stopping domestic suspense with twisted non-stop action, plenty of dark suspense, and lots of shocking drama, Nanny Dearest will make you leave the light on at night.