I received this book as an ARC from BookishFirst in exchange for an honest review.

Wow! What a great book. Jamie and Emma are sisters. One night, during high school, Jamie convinces Emma to take her babysitting job so that Jamie could go to a party. Emma babysits and is stabbed while babysitting. She is cognitively impaired from the attack.

Twenty years later, their mother dies and Jamie comes home with her own daughter to look after Emma, her older sister. Jamie and Harley move into Jamie's childhood home and begin taking care of Emma and their mother's estate. Harley enrolls in the same school Jamie and Emma attended and befriends the daughter of one of Emma's classmates. One night - at the same house where Emma was attacked - someone enters the home and attempts to attack the babysitter.

Cooper Haynes was a classmate of Emma's and is now a detective in the town. He begins looking into Emma's attack with Jamie's help. When someone else is attacked and another person may have been murdered, Cooper and Jamie begin wondering if the two attacks are linked. ( )

This was my first book by author, Nancy Bush. I thought it was a thriller but moved it to my mystery shelf. I’m more of the mind it is a mystery with a splash of thriller and dash of horror. I enjoyed reading it though it moved slowly for me. This resulted it a longer time reading it where I picked up various other books. This is how I read though so your experience may be different. I usually have several books going at once.
The book has two time spans on the crimes. One happened when Jamie was a teenager. The one we are most concerned with happens when Jamie returns home as an adult. Emma, Jamie’s sister, was a victim in the first crime. She is still dealing with that when Jamie returns home with her teenage daughter, Harley. The attack on Emma has one group of characters. The fresh attack has a different, though connected, set of characters. If you aren’t good at keeping the characters straight, I would suggest using paper and pen to jot them down along with who they are connected to. (I would never be able to keep it straight if I had been listening.)
Both mysteries are well done. I was all over the place on who did what. Yes, I was surprised at the reveals. That’s about all I’m going to give on the mysteries.
I liked Jamie, Emma and Harley. I also liked Cooper, the detective. Jamie made a few questionable movies but I felt she was doing what she felt was right. Emma, though damaged, was a lot stronger than I think she is credited as being. The rest of the many characters were made up of a few people I liked but more that I didn’t. The dogs were amazing. Haha.
The book reminded me of being a teenager and babysitting at a time when babysitting cautionary tales ran rampant. I loved it. I was also reminded of the many babysitting books and horror movies I enjoyed. Overall, it’s a book I would recommend and I do plan to read more by this author. ( )

In a world full of babysitter thrillers, this one is a far cry from the norm. The book starts out with a flashback of the night Jamie and her sister Emma switched places while babysitting so that Jamie could attend a party that her crush was at. Unfortunately, after Jamie leaves and her sister takes over for her, Emma is attacked (presumably by the "babysitter stalker.") She is left physically and mentally scarred and will need care for the rest of her life. Flash forward many years and Jamie Whelan returns to her childhood home with her teenage daughter after her mothers dies to take care of her estate and her older sister. When Jamie returns she meets up with old friends and acquaintances and the memory of the night her sister was attacked returns to haunt her. There were rumors of a babysitter stalker during the time of Emma's attack and it seems that he/she might be up to it again! This book had just the right amount of mystery, drama, and romance to keep me hooked until the very end. There are many twists and turns as Emma and her old crush try to solve the mysteries of Emma's attacker plus who is doing them now. I was kept guessing until the very end! Usually I am usually very good at figuring out who dunnit before the end of a book, but this one was a shocker! Thank you to Kensington Books and Bookish First for the ARC! ( )

Review of Advance Reader’s Edition

Two attacks on babysitters have the residents of River Glen, Oregon worried. The first, some twenty years ago, left Emma Whelan brain damaged, her memory compromised. And, with the new attack on another teen-aged babysitter, people can’t help but wonder if there’s any connection between the two assaults, even if they are so many years apart.

The new attack on Marissa raises questions about the attack on Emma. Is it the original attacker, once again seeking victims, or is it a copycat? They’d never caught the ski-masked, knife-wielding attacker, but had dismissed the idea of a “babysitter stalker.” Now there are new questions . . . but no answers.

Is someone targeting babysitters? If so, why? What, if anything does the attack on Marissa have to do with Emma’s attack? And can they find the attacker before there’s another tragedy?

When Jamie Whelan Woodward returns to River Glen with her teen-aged daughter, Harley, it’s like an old home week . . . most of the teens she went to school with are still here, now grown and with families of their own. Unfortunately, most of them act as if they are still adolescent high schoolers and the mothers in the wine group are positively cringe-worthy. One mother goes so far as to create a major brouhaha over her daughter, Marissa, being with Hayley while the family spreads her grandmother’s ashes. This makes absolutely no sense since friends, along with family, are the major support for those grieving the loss of a loved one.

The narrative moves between the past when Jamie and Emma were teen-agers and the present day, with unexplained events helping to increase the tension. There’s a pervasive uneasiness underlying the story that keeps the pages turning while creepy moments build suspense. The mystery is a bit twisty, offering readers some reveals they simply won’t see coming.

Recommended.

I received a free copy of this book through Bookish First ( )