Category Archives: Book Battle

Welcome to my First ever Book Review Battle!

This idea came accidentally. I personally never wanted to read “The Housemaid” due to alleged Plagiarism allegations that I have heard from Booktok and Booktube, I had no clue what the original book was when I first picked these up, it was just happenstance that I read “The Housemaid” and then Immediately picked up “The Last Mrs. Parish”. Only a few chapters into “The Last Mrs. Parish” I realized I was basically reading the same book as the one I had just finished. I went to my favorite Booktuber @HaileyHughes and watched her Freida McFadden Taste test Video and she mentions the comparison. Let me just tell you that the comparison is a bit uncanny and I am here to tell you all my thoughts and opinions.

This blog post may be one of a kind here but if I find other similar books I may do this again. Send any recommendations that you have!

Spoilers Ahead

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About The Books

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“The Last Mrs. Parish” Synopsis

Amber Patterson is fed up. She’s tired of being a nobody: a plain, invisible woman who blends into the background. She deserves more—a life of money and power like the one blond-haired, blue-eyed goddess Daphne Parrish takes for granted.

To everyone in the exclusive town of Bishops Harbor, Connecticut, Daphne—a socialite and philanthropist—and her real-estate mogul husband, Jackson, are a couple straight out of a fairy tale.

Amber’s envy could eat her alive . . . if she didn’t have a plan. Amber uses Daphne’s compassion and caring to insinuate herself into the family’s life—the first step in a meticulous scheme to undermine her. Before long, Amber is Daphne’s closest confidante, traveling to Europe with the Parrishes and their lovely young daughters, and growing closer to Jackson. But a skeleton from her past may undermine everything that Amber has worked towards, and if it is discovered, her well-laid plan may fall to pieces.

Synopsis From Goodreads

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“The Housemaid” Synopsis

“Welcome to the family,” Nina Winchester says as I shake her elegant, manicured hand. I smile politely, gazing around the marble hallway. Working here is my last chance to start fresh. I can pretend to be whoever I like. But I’ll soon learn that the Winchesters’ secrets are far more dangerous than my own…

Every day I clean the Winchesters’ beautiful house top to bottom. I collect their daughter from school. And I cook a delicious meal for the whole family before heading up to eat alone in my tiny room on the top floor.

I try to ignore how Nina makes a mess just to watch me clean it up. How she tells strange lies about her own daughter. And how her husband Andrew seems more broken every day. But as I look into Andrew’s handsome brown eyes, so full of pain, it’s hard not to imagine what it would be like to live Nina’s life. The walk-in closet, the fancy car, the perfect husband.

I only try on one of Nina’s pristine white dresses once. Just to see what it’s like. But she soon finds out… and by the time I realize my attic bedroom door only locks from the outside, it’s far too late.

But I reassure myself: the Winchesters don’t know who I really am.

They don’t know what I’m capable of…

Synopsis From GoodReads

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Disclaimer

I want to start my review of these two books by saying once again, These are my opinions and any talk about similarities/plagiarism is all alleged. I ask that you take what I say with a grain of salt and make your own opinions through your own research and reading.

Thank you

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When reading the synopsis of both books I don’t feel like you see too many similarities. The biggest similarity is that a seemingly down on her luck girl makes acquaintances with a rich family and ultimately intertwines her life with theirs. At that point it sounds more like a similar trope. You may pick up “The Housemaid” because you really enjoyed “The Last Mrs. Parish” or vice versa hoping to read a book that has a similar vibe only to get 15% into the book and realize that something feels oddly familiar. By the time you make it 50% of the way through and you hit part two in both books you will realize they both flip to the wife’s perspective and she lays out her whole plot line that reveals the big twist!

The character motivations are almost Identical for each character. Why don’t we break them down one by one.

Amber (Main Character in “The Last Mrs. Parish”) is an ex convict who finds a new rich best friend and convinces her to get her a job within the husbands company so she can work with him directly and make him fall in love with her. Millie (Main Character in “The Housemaid”) is an ex convict who needs a job to stay afloat in her life, she ends up working for a rich family and just so happens to fall in love with the rich husband.

These characters are probably the most different out of the ones I will be discussing.

They both end up as the victims in these books but the big difference is how they ultimately found their way into this trap. Amber knew she wanted Jackson, she studied him and his family and basically targeted them all so she could be the wife of the rich CEO and live a lavish life that she felt she deserved. Whereas, Millie was just looking for a good job so she could afford to live somewhere that wasn’t her car and ended up being handpicked by her employer knowing that Millie would end up falling in love with her psychopathic husband and ultimately take her place as his victim.

I never felt bad for Amber but Millie on the other hand really deserved better! Amber is immediately coming off as the villain while Millie is just down on her luck and finds herself in a sticky situation.

Daphne (Wife in “The Last Mrs. Parish”) is A nice woman who marries the wrong guy and has to find a way out of her marriage to protect her and her children. She comes off as a really great friend who has a hidden agenda. Nina (wife in “The Housemaid”) is A seemingly horrible woman who in the end is actually a very nice lady who had to act horrible to save her and her child from her horrible husband.

The difference with these characters is the way they initially present themselves. Nina comes off crazy but really it is all an act to get Millie to take her place as Andrews Wife/victim. Whereas, Daphne is a sweet woman who realizes she’s being used by Amber so why not get something out of it and help Amber and Jackson get together so she can finally be rid of her abusive husband. Ultimately these woman had the same motive just different ways to accomplish their plans.

Jackson (Husband in “The Last Mrs. Parish”) is A Seemingly perfect husband and father who owns his own company and turns out to be a psychopath. Andrew (Husband in “The Housemaid”) is A Seemingly perfect husband and father who owns his own company and turns out to be a psychopath.

These are the most identical characters between the two books.

The biggest difference in these characters is that Andrew literally locks his wife, and later on Millie, in the attic and forces them to do punishments in order to be let out. Whereas, Jackson mostly just emotionally abuses the women and occasionally will hold a gun to their head. So yes, there is a slight difference in the escalation these men take throughout the book but the root of the problem is having a perfect wife/life and if the women don’t live up to these expectations then they will be punished. Both men in these books had their wives committed to a mental health institution for supposedly causing harm to their children when truthfully they are both good mothers.

I ended up rating both of these books exactly the same, 2.5 Stars, because they both fell short in my opinion. I do think “The Housemaid” had a better plot twist but in my opinion the writing felt very repetitive and I was quite bored with the book till the 50% mark came along and the plot twist was revealed. With “The Last Mrs. Parish” I thought the writing was great and I was interested in the first 50% of the book but the plot twist didn’t quite live up to “The Housemaid” which ultimately dropped my rating significantly. This leads me to believe that if I had read “The Last Mrs. Parish” before I had read “The Housemaid” I probably would have rated it higher which is unfortunate because it was written first and was ripped off by “The Housemaid” in my honest opinion.

I advise you to read these and make your own opinions as you may not agree with me and that is ok. Everything mentioned here in my article is based on my own opinion and all plagiarism suspicions are alleged but I will not be swayed from this and will not be reading any more Frieda McFadden books no matter how great people tell me they are.

Thank you for reading this, I appreciate you!