Book Review: The Engagement by Samantha Hayes

What. A. Ride.

If you love psychological thrillers that quietly creep under your skin before completely pulling the rug out from beneath you, The Engagement is one to add to your list immediately. I flew through this in one sitting, fully convinced I’d read “just one more chapter” until suddenly it was the middle of the night and I was staring at the wall in complete shock.

The story begins with what should be a happy moment: Hannah meeting her daughter Belle’s fiancé, Jack. Charming, handsome, thoughtful, the kind of man who says all the right things and wins everyone over effortlessly. Everyone except Hannah. Because the second she sees him, her entire world tilts sideways. Beneath the polished smile and perfect manners is someone she recognizes instantly, someone tied to a past she’s spent years desperately trying to bury.

And from that moment onward, the book wraps its hands around your throat and does not let go.

What made this so deeply unsettling for me was the constant tension surrounding Belle. She’s completely in love, glowing with happiness and planning a future with a man she believes is perfect, while Hannah is unraveling in quiet horror watching it happen.

Every affectionate moment between Belle and Jack made my skin crawl because you can feel Hannah’s terror bleeding through the pages. The thought of him touching her daughter, kissing her, building a life with her while hiding something so sinister underneath it all felt genuinely disturbing. There’s this awful helplessness threaded through the story because as a reader, you know something is wrong long before Belle does.

And that’s what makes the psychological aspect work so brilliantly. Hannah isn’t just trying to expose Jack, she’s fighting against everyone’s perception of her. The more frantic she becomes, the more unbelievable she appears. Belle thinks her mother is overreacting. Other people begin questioning her behaviour. Even as a reader, there are moments where you start doubting everything yourself. Is Hannah right? Is her trauma twisting reality? Or is there truly something monstrous hiding beneath Jack’s carefully crafted charm?

Samantha Hayes plays with that uncertainty so well. Jack is terrifying not because he’s openly cruel, but because he’s subtle. Controlled. The kind of person who can sit across a dinner table smiling warmly while making your stomach knot with dread. Every interaction with him felt loaded with tension, like standing too close to the edge of something dangerous without quite seeing how far the drop goes.

The relationship between Hannah and Belle honestly broke my heart at times. Underneath all the suspense and twists is this painfully emotional story about a mother trying to protect her daughter while slowly losing her in the process. The harder Hannah fights, the further Belle slips away, and watching that distance grow felt almost as devastating as the thriller elements themselves.

And then there’s the ending. Absolutely jaw dropping. One of those twists that forces you to stop reading for a second just to process what you’ve learned. Looking back, the clues were scattered so carefully throughout the story, hidden in plain sight, but I still never saw it coming in the way it unfolded.

What I appreciated most was that The Engagement doesn’t rely on cheap shock value or dramatic theatrics. The fear feels intimate and believable. It taps into something deeply human: the terror of not being believed, the horror of watching someone you love fall into danger while being powerless to stop it, and the awful realization that sometimes the most dangerous people are the ones who appear the safest.

Dark, tense, unsettling, and wildly addictive, this is the kind of thriller that leaves you suspicious of charming strangers for a little while afterward.

If you enjoy authors like Freida McFadden, B.A. Paris, or Lisa Jewell, this one will absolutely keep you hooked.

Rating: 3.5/5