“Never take anything you haven’t earned, my father used to say. You always end up paying for it one way or another.” – 4/5 stars!

Attention! This book contains: detailed elevators, rules, ouroboros, creepy wallpaper, signed book copies, gargoyles, easy money, park benches, missing flyers, lost cell phones, puppies, suicides, guns, dumbwaiters and reset buttons.

No visitors. No nights spent away from the apartment. No disturbing the other residents, all of whom are rich or famous or both. These are the only rules for Jules Larsen’s new job as an apartment sitter at the Bartholomew, one of Manhattan’s most high-profile and mysterious buildings. Recently heartbroken and just plain broke, Jules is taken in by the splendor of her surroundings and accepts the terms, ready to leave her past life behind.

As she gets to know the residents and staff of the Bartholomew, Jules finds herself drawn to fellow apartment sitter Ingrid, who comfortingly, disturbingly reminds her of the sister she lost eight years ago. When Ingrid confides that the Bartholomew is not what it seems and the dark history hidden beneath its gleaming facade is starting to frighten her, Jules brushes it off as a harmless ghost story—until the next day, when Ingrid disappears.

Searching for the truth about Ingrid’s disappearance, Jules digs deeper into the Bartholomew’s dark past and into the secrets kept within its walls. Her discovery that Ingrid is not the first apartment sitter to go missing at the Bartholomew pits Jules against the clock as she races to unmask a killer, expose the building’s hidden past, and escape the Bartholomew before her temporary status becomes permanent.

I can’t remember the last time I read a good thriller, so I decided to pick this up – it looked promising. This is classified as a thriller and a mystery novel, but for me it was more of a mystery trying to be horror.
When the story began, I thought the setup was perfect! The building had a creepy vibe, the gargoyles were eerie, the residents seemed TOO private, the building history was haunting… and then you find out there’s a dumbwaiter in the apartment and now you know for sure you are in for a treat! Well… and I was, just not the way I expected.
I feel like I spent the majority of the book wondering why “nothing” was happening… and still, I wasn’t bored. I remember when I read about the first time Jules felt something in her apartment and the time when the first message appeared in her dumbwaiter, I thought the story was going to be about a haunted apartment/building but it was nothing like that.
With that said, it was still a great story and I was hooked the entire time! But please note that if you are expecting a paranormal book like I was, this is probably not the book for you.