Whatever You Do, Don't Drink the Cocoa...

Happiest Book Birthday to The Perfect Guests!

I'm so delighted to be part of the blog tour (my very first!) for Emma Rous and her sophomore book, The Perfect Guests (Berkley Trade Paperback; January 12, 2021)! This fun British thriller is sure to be a favorite follow-up to her debut, The Au Pair.

I'll let Emma's website set the summary, because I love it:

You are cordially invited to play a game at Raven Hall...

When Beth Soames was fourteen, she was invited into the heart of Raven Hall, a rambling, isolated manor in the East Anglian Fens. There, she ran wild with her foster sister Nina Averell, playing hide and seek, climbing trees, wild swimming in the freezing lake. As far as Beth could see, Nina had everything a girl could wish for. But then Beth was invited to play a very strange game - and nothing was the same again.

Now, after years of abandonment, Raven Hall has been restored to its former glory and is playing host to a murder mystery evening of prestigious guests. But why does the tragic past of this rambling manor seem to have such a hold on everyone? Is this really a game, or a murder mystery for real?

The guests are about to find out - with devastating consequences...

This was a fun, easy, and clean read. I love Emma's books in that she doesn't feel the need to pepper her pages with liberal variations of the f-word. It's not that I'll judge a book poorly on the basis of it; sometimes I just like to escape modern books and their oodles of profanity.

I will say that I loved Beth's perspective best--found friendships, a cute crush, a totally sinister mother--I was hooked by the novel's past POV. When it shifts to Sadie's modern timeline, it's still good, but it doesn't have the same punchy flow, as entertaining as it is (the problem is most likely entirely mine: I'm a history nerd and prefer the past to the contemporary). But I have to say, I do love how everything ties together by the end. And I do love a good dual timeline.

A very special thanks to NetGalley and Berkeley Publishing Group for allowing me an advance copy of this wonderful book. It's a treat and I'm definitely going to be checking out all of Rous's books from now on.

If you haven't read it already, don't forget to grab a copy of Emma's debut, The Au Pair!

This twisty thriller follows the story of Seraphine, who discovers a photo of her mother holding her on the day she was born...and in doing so uncovers a huge family secret...

I loved how Rous unraveled this plot in past and present using the perspectives of Seraphine and Laura, the au pair. It's clever and fun, and you'll be left trying to guess what's going on until the very end.

Happy reading!

Emma Rous is the USA Today bestselling author of The Au Pair. She grew up in England, Indonesia, Kuwait, Portugal and Fiji, and from a young age she had two ambitions: to write stories, and to look after animals. She studied veterinary medicine and zoology at the University of Cambridge, and worked as a small animal veterinarian for eighteen years before starting to write fiction. Emma lives near Cambridge in England with her husband and three sons, and she now writes full time.

Author photo © Brian Rous