But listen carefully to the sound of your loneliness: THE AU PAIR.

The Au Pair by Emma Rous

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars


Seraphine Mayes has never felt quite whole. She and her twin brother were born at Summerbourne, her family's estate, and within hours of their birth, their mother died, throwing herself off the cliffs behind their house. The only real witness, Laura, the family's au pair, disappeared, and Seraphine and Danny, her brother, never knew what happened. After the death of her father, twenty-five-year-old Seraphine is going through his things when she finds a photo of her mother holding just one baby and looking oddly serene for a woman who killed herself the day her twins were born. Seraphine begins to further question what happened that day. Who is the baby in her mother's arms and what really happened to her mother? But Seraphine's questions seem to stir up a dangerous force, as if someone doesn't want her to know the truth.


"I flip the photo over, and my father's distinctive scrawl confirms it was taken on the day we were born, just over twenty-five years ago. I already know it could be no later, because on the same day Danny and I were born, our mother jumped from the cliffs behind our house and killed herself."


This was a book that everyone seemed to be talking about on Goodreads, so I picked it up. I'm glad I did. It was an engaging, quick read that kept me interested and guessing. The story alternates between the present-day, told by Seraphine and the past, leading up to the twins birth, as told by Laura, the young au pair. We learn that the Mayes family has a history of sadness and tragedy--especially when it comes to twins. However, Rous is very good as slowly unfurling her plot, letting us carefully uncover exactly what happened not only with Seraphine, Danny, and their older brother Edwin, but with their mother, Ruth, and with Laura.

The book is certainly weird and intriguing early on. It's very readable and certainly creepy at times. I did wonder why Seraphine didn't just take a DNA test from the beginning: at least then she'd know if Edwin and Danny were her brothers! There was a lot of hand-wringing and angst. Which, okay, I can understand if you believe you don't belong in your family, but it was a little much at times. There were a few cliches and predictable moments, but the plot was also really interesting and just dramatic enough to draw me in and keep me flipping the pages. I was fascinated to see how things would all turn out. And while Seraphine could irritate me at times, I overall liked both Laura and Seraphine as narrators and characters.

Overall, this was a good read--fast and twisty. I probably could have used a notepad to draw out the family dynamics by the end: there are some fun twists and turns there. It's a good book to embrace and enjoy the craziness and drama. It can be a little melodramatic, but overall a fun read. 3.5 stars.

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