24 books like The Housemaid's Secret

Tom Ripley’s obsession with Dickie Greenleaf is so fascinating because it’s real but completely disturbing. I love this book because of Tom and Dickie, two characters who are loveable and hateable at the same time. The first half flew by on account of the setting–France, Italy, summer–it made me feel like I was there enjoying a European holiday with our protagonists. The second half turned everything on its head, and I was exhilarated and terrified all at once.

This story details love manifesting into a disturbing obsession, and this is a particularly interesting topic to explore. I loved the pace of the book (high, great plot) and the development of the characters. It is definitely one of my favorite stories about friendship with a beautiful European backdrop. 

This novel involves family secrets.

When a husband from a wealthy family is shot in front of her, his wife goes on a tirade that has you invested in the story from the first page. Chocked with well-described characters, this story is driven by love and loss, from the cold and calculating mother-in-law to the sympathetic brother-in-law.

A wife’s journey to find her husband's killer will have you constantly guessing. This book is full of twists and turns, with a twist at the end that leaves you spinning.

Everyone can relate to an unlikeable employer. I love a beautiful home and a perfect life. This book has it all. It’s beautiful and horrific at the same time.

If you love descriptive narrative, this is the book for you. It has some house porn and high fashion. Frieda paints the perfect picture and then unravels the unsavory truths.

The housemaid is damaged yet likable. There is nothing like rooting for the underdog, and the housemaid is just that person. I loved this book.

Set in upstate New York at the beautiful Cloisters. This book is as beautifully curated as the museum it is set in.

When a young woman lands an internship at the Cloisters, she is quickly pulled into a world of haves and have-nots, a world where the privileged dabble in mysticism and magic. Murder becomes a pivotal point in discovering the secrets. The groundskeeper and the intern are soon embroiled in the messy business of unearthing this “who done it.”

I enjoyed the visuals in this book. Beautifully written. I highly recommend it.

There are many psychological thrillers out there about husbands and wives. If you search for the word ‘wife’ on Goodreads there must be hundreds of titles. But The Wife Between Us is one of my favourites. It’s clever, twisted, and plays on your expectations. From the first page, you’ll believe the book to be going one way, but then it twists in another direction altogether.

Holly appears to have a perfect life, living in a beautiful house, lunching with friends, married to handsome Zach, a hospital doctor.

But gradually we discover that Holly’s life is one of fear: she is a victim of gaslighting. If Holly dares to cross Zach, the cruel, sadistic narcissist shows itself. One of the chapters that sent shivers down my spine was when Zach punishes Holly when she is at her most vulnerable – in the birthing suite.

He sabotages the delivery of their daughter, causing Holly to need a C-section, all because, earlier, Holly left some shoes on the floor and Zach tripped over them.

For much of the book we wonder if Holly will ever be free of her abusive husband, but the author creates a wonderful ending which had me clapping my hands with delight.

This book is a suspense thriller that has a theme of family drama and substance abuse.

As an advocate for mental health and addiction recovery I found this book a very worthwhile read. I found it hard to put the book down, the depth of the characters and their experiences were fearful. I assume the writer has drawn from personal experience as the storyline is too tragic to be completely fabricated.

The MC lives with her family in a household that walks on eggshells due to an alcoholic father. The story is rich and compelling with a great educational side of it that really does help others to understand issues surrounding alcoholism and mental health. 

This is certainly a gripping tale as it gets going.

I was impressed by how it realistically shows abuse of children and abuse of women in different families in two different story threads that are tied together dramatically as a thriller. It is told from two points of view: Celia a mother who works in Citizen’s Advice, and Lucie the little girl she befriends.

It begins as a normal domestic scene with the two characters meeting by chance, but soon it develops into a thriller where Celia is suddenly hijacking at knifepoint whilst going about her business. It shows another aspect of violence against women where they can be suddenly assaulted by strangers.

This book is the follow-up to a postcard series and book called Lockdown Secrets, where Eleanor who owns a stationery shop in London, sent out blank postcards that people anonymously returned to her with their stories, secrets, and confessions.

The Sex Secrets series really puts light to the fact that there really is no normal when it comes to how we think about, feel, and have sex. Firstly the cards are beautiful, some of them almost works of art – you can feel people’s personalities in them. Some are heartbreaking, others heartwarming – they take you through a complete range of emotions.

If you think you know what’s happening in other people’s sex lives then think again.

The book starts with a wife asking her husband who else he would sleep with, if he could. I loved this hook which any one of us might ask in a casual way, anticipating our partner to say ‘only you, darling!’ When the husband doesn’t give the expected reply, it unsurprisingly opens a can of worms which kept me turning the pages. This compulsive, sexy, roller coaster of a story didn’t disappoint me.