*Spoiler Alert*

I did not just run to Walmart after finishing this book – I sprinted. I have said it once before, and I will say it again: there is no better feeling in this world than reading a book so good that it consumes you. Truly, nothing can compare. 

Freida McFadden’s “The Housemaid’s Secret” is the second installment to her New York Times Best Seller “The Housemaid.” I am always on edge when there is a sequel or even a third book to a popular novel. They are just never as good as the original – unless it is written by McFadden.

Following the first novel, the story follows Millie Calloway living in Manhattan, taking a job for the Garrick’s. Doug Garrick is a rich CEO for a technology business, while Wendy Garrick does not come out of her bedroom. Millie suspects something is going on behind closed doors and helps Wendy get out of her abusive relationship with Doug. Although she is helping the devil. 

There was plot twists after plot twists I could not predict the way the story was going to end. I was very skeptical of Doug from the beginning because of the way Wendy was acting, but that all felt way too obvious. If you are familiar with McFadden’s novels, there is nothing obvious about her plots. 

So then, I start to doubt Wendy. I remember the exact page that my eyebrow raised. 154. Millie successfully helps Wendy escape the penthouse and takes her to a motel a few hours away from Manhattan. At this point, the fear factor in the reader is what will happen once Doug finds out. Wendy says to Millie, “He was waiting for me…he was already there. He knew.” Yeah, I was not buying it. There is absolutely no way he knew she was already there. He never heard her talk about this friend of hers that she was staying with, according to Wendy. Even if he was tracking her, he would not know where she was going until she got there. The best foreshadowing I have ever seen. What is even better, I still believed Wendy because I thought I was being too analytical. I should have just trusted my gut.

At the climax of the book, Millie is framed for killing Doug (which she did do), but it is not the same guy she “killed.” She walks in on fake Doug choking Wendy, so Millie shoots him, but we learned it was all staged by Wendy and Russell – a man who looks like Doug, and a married man who was sleeping with Wendy. The pair worked together to frame Millie for them killing the real Doug, who was a sweet, rich man who cared about Wendy, but she just wanted his bank account.

Throughout the novel, Millie kept feeling like someone was watching her at random moments. This is where I feel like the novel fell short, or maybe I was supposed to know who was watching her. She describes a black car with busted out right headlight following her when she is alone. Creepy right? For a moment, I think that it is possibly one of “Doug’s guys,” since he supposedly is so rich and powerful. That explanation just did not make sense to me. I knew it was Enzo. Everything was going wrong for Millie at this point that the plot needed to balance out and have something go right for her.

The thing with Enzo is, I felt a sort of disconnect to their relationship. Millie is dating a lawyer named Brock, but Enzo is the love of her life – the only guy she will let in, the only one who truly understands her and her past. Enzo was in the first novel as the gardener for the Winchesters, and he helped Nina escape. In the novel, Nina and Enzo had a romantic connection, but they were not meant for each other. With the time jump from the first novel and the second, the reader completely misses out on the romance between Millie and Enzo. It made total sense; I just wish there was more. At the same time, this is a psychological thriller, not a romance.

Now Brock – he is in love with Millie, but she keeps him at arm’s length. It is aggravating, but it is understandable. She is afraid to let him in and does not tell him about her criminal past in fear that he will leave or judge her. He is painted as a dry character because Millie does not truly care about him. Brock is a little overbearing at times; he keeps asking Millie to move in with him after she has said no several times. Things went south when Brock left her in the interrogation room. He had no idea about her past, what had happened that night with Doug, that evidence was pointing to Millie, etc. How was he supposed to professionally represent her as a lawyer when he feels like he knows nothing about her? Yes, he did leave as soon as she needed him, but he never fully had her in the first place.

I was not let down by the ending either. Russell and Wendy are on the run and stay in a secluded cabin. Millie gets word of where they are staying, and once she discovers the truth, she is on a warpath to seek revenge. I did not fear Millie and her dangerous capabilities until the cabin scene. It is told from Wendy’s perspective, and you can feel the fear from Wendy radiating off the pages once she knows Millie broke into the cabin. There was something so chilling about it being pitch black, the lightning outside shining through the windows, and Millie’s silhouette in the dark. Goosebumps. And it was not even Millie. It was Marybeth, Russell’s wife, who slaughters her husband and puts a lethal drug into the wine that Wendy drank, then forces her to write a suicide note. Jaw dropped.

I cannot wait for “The Housemaid’s Secret” to hit the big screen. This is a novel that will have you reading just one chapter, and before you know it, you are halfway through. I physically could not manage to put it down. I expect the film to carry to same weight. Come back next week for a review of “The Housemaid is Watching.”

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