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Mother. Hero. Liar. Killer. How can you tell when all you have is…

PIECES OF HER

What if the person you thought you knew best turns out to be someone you never knew at all . . . ?

Andrea knows everything about her mother, Laura. She knows she’s spent her whole life in the small beachside town of Belle Isle; she knows she’s never wanted anything more than to live a quiet life as a pillar of the community; she knows she’s never kept a secret in her life. Because we all know our mothers, don’t we?

But all that changes when a trip to the mall explodes into violence and Andrea suddenly sees a completely different side to Laura. Because it turns out that before Laura was Laura, she was someone completely different. For nearly thirty years she’s been hiding from her previous identity, lying low in the hope that no one would ever find her. But now she’s been exposed, and nothing will ever be the same again.

The police want answers and Laura’s innocence is on the line, but she won’t speak to anyone, including her own daughter. Andrea is on a desperate journey following the breadcrumb trail of her mother’s past. And if she can’t uncover the secrets hidden there, there may be no future for either one of them. . . .

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MY REVIEW

Andrea (Andy) and her mother Laura are having lunch at a mall, when a man shows up and starts shooting. Andy sees a very different side of her mother during the attack. Andy soon learns her mother wasn’t always Laura. In fact, Laura has been hiding from her past for thirty years. Andy starts on a journey to find who her mother really is.

Told using multiple timelines, this novel flips between 2018 and 1986. The present day story opens with Andy realizing there is more to her mother than she ever thought. This revelation leads Andy on a search into her mother’s past. The past (1986) is Laura’s story about who she was and how she became the woman she is in the present timeline.

Laura has maintained a low-key lifestyle, but that changes when she and her daughter are under attack. It turns out, she’s pretty badass. On the flip side, Andy is insecure, dependent, and timid.

This story has plenty of mystery and action, but it also examines a mother-daughter relationship. The mystery is who is Laura, and what is she hiding. The action is bouts of violence and mayhem in both timelines. The mother-daughter relationship shows that Laura had a life before becoming a mother.

I enjoyed Pieces of Her by Karin Slaughter, but it was different than others I’ve read by her. I loved The Good Daughter and Pretty Girls, but both of those novels are darker and more graphic than Pieces of Her.

Pieces of Her is an intense story that involves secrets and lies. Intriguing, suspenseful, and twisty.

Books in the Andrea Oliver series:

1. Pieces of Her
2. Girl, Forgotten

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A seemingly perfect marriage is threatened by the deadly secrets husband and wife keep from each other.

Susannah, a young widow and single mother, has remarried well: to Max, a charismatic artist and popular speaker whose career took her and her fifteen-year-old son out of New York City and to a quiet Vermont university town. Strong-willed and attractive, Susannah expects that her life is perfectly in place again. Then one quiet morning she finds a note on her door: I KNOW WHO YOU ARE.

Max dismisses the note as a prank. But days after a neighborhood couple comes to dinner, the husband mysteriously dies in a tragic accident while on a run with Max. Soon thereafter, a second note appears on their door: DID YOU GET AWAY WITH IT?

Both Susannah and Max are keeping secrets from the world and from each other—secrets that could destroy their family and everything they have built. Thomas Christopher Greene’s The Perfect Liar is a thrilling novel told through the alternating perspectives of Susannah and Max with a shocking climax that no one will expect, from the bestselling author of The Headmaster’s Wife.

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MY REVIEW

Max and Susannah seem to have a great life. When a mysterious note shows up on their door, they want to ignore it, but then a second note appears.

The Perfect Liar is told from alternating points of view, Max and Susannah both have secrets they don’t want getting out. When Susannah met Max, they seemed to fit together perfectly. They met in New York City, but with the success of Max’s career have moved to Vermont. Everything is going well for them, until the mysterious notes start to arrive.

The plot was interesting. The two main characters are both hiding dark secrets. Someone is leaving creepy notes on their door. It seems like a great read, but I never really connected with the story or the characters.

I’ve seen some great reviews for The Perfect Liar, and I imagine it will be a hit with some fans of psychological thrillers. For me, it was good, but not great. Best for fans of dark domestic thrillers with unlikable characters.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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Seraphine Mayes and her twin brother, Danny, were born in the middle of summer at their family’s estate on the Norfolk coast. Within hours of their birth, their mother threw herself from the cliffs, the au pair fled, and the village thrilled with whispers of dark cloaks, changelings, and the aloof couple who drew a young nanny into their inner circle.

Now an adult, Seraphine mourns the recent death of her father. While going through his belongings, she uncovers a family photograph that raises dangerous questions. It was taken on the day the twins were born, and in the photo, their mother, surrounded by her husband and her young son, is smiling serenely and holding just one baby.

Who is the child, and what really happened that day?

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MY REVIEW

Shortly after Seraphine and her twin brother were born, their mother killed herself. In addition to her mother’s death, the au pair also quietly left that summer. Now Seraphine and her brother are adults, and their father has recently passed away. After going through his things, Seraphine starts to question the past and what she has always been told happened the summer they were born.

The Au Pair is told with the alternating points of Seraphine and Laura, the au pair. Seraphine’s story is told in present day as she attempts to piece together what happened in the past. Laura’s story takes place in the past, the summer the twins were born. With both narrators, I was sometimes questioning how reliable they were, which made for an intriguing read.

A suspenseful story about secrets from the past. The Au Pair offers plenty of twistiness. In the end, I felt all the twists led to an ending that was a bit ridiculous. A fun and entertaining read if you don’t require a realistic storyline. Family secrets and mystery.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.

Books by Emma Rous:

1. The Au Pair
2. The Perfect Guests

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She’s your best friend.

She knows all your secrets.

That’s why she’s so dangerous.

A single mother’s life is turned upside down when her best friend vanishes in this chilling debut thriller in the vein of Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train.

It starts with a simple favor—an ordinary kindness mothers do for one another. When her best friend, Emily, asks Stephanie to pick up her son Nicky after school, she happily says yes. Nicky and her son, Miles, are classmates and best friends, and the five-year-olds love being together—just like she and Emily. A widow and stay-at-home mommy blogger living in woodsy suburban Connecticut, Stephanie was lonely until she met Emily, a sophisticated PR executive whose job in Manhattan demands so much of her time.

But Emily doesn’t come back. She doesn’t answer calls or return texts. Stephanie knows something is terribly wrong—Emily would never leave Nicky, no matter what the police say. Terrified, she reaches out to her blog readers for help. She also reaches out to Emily’s husband, the handsome, reticent Sean, offering emotional support. It’s the least she can do for her best friend. Then, she and Sean receive shocking news. Emily is dead. The nightmare of her disappearance is over.

Or is it? Because soon, Stephanie will begin to see that nothing—not friendship, love, or even an ordinary favor—is as simple as it seems.

A Simple Favor is a remarkable tale of psychological suspense—a clever and twisting free-fall of a ride filled with betrayals and reversals, twists and turns, secrets and revelations, love and loyalty, murder and revenge. Darcey Bell masterfully ratchets up the tension in a taut, unsettling, and completely absorbing story that holds you in its grip until the final page.

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MY REVIEW

Stephanie and Emily are best friends. Emily asks a favor of Stephanie – to watch her son one afternoon and she’ll pick him up that evening… but Emily never comes back.

Stephanie is a widow and mommy blogger with a young son. Emily is a working mom with a young son. They don’t seem to have much in common, other than their sons are friends, but soon they also become friends. They also both have secrets in their past that they don’t want to get out.

A Simple Favor is told with alternating points of view – Stephanie, Emily, and Sean. Plus, some of the story is told using posts from Stephanie’s blog. Stephanie is naive, creepy, and fake. Emily is arty, manipulative, and awful. Sean is Emily’s dopey husband.

A Simple Favor is a twisted psychological thriller. I enjoyed the writing style, but the story itself was not that great. Stephanie and Emily are both unlikable, and not in a “they’re morally corrupt, but interesting” way. Even with unlikable characters, I want to root for someone, and this book didn’t have that. There were some interesting happenings and twists. It’s just unfortunate that I never connected with any characters.

Books by Darcey Bell:

1. A Simple Favor
2. Something She’s Not Telling Us
3. All I Want
4. Woman of the Year

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MEET HANNA: Seven-year-old Hanna is a sweet-but-silent angel in the eyes of her adoring father Alex. He’s the only person who understands her. But her mother Suzette stands in her way, and she’ll try any trick she can think of to get rid of her. Ideally for good.

MEET SUZETTE: Suzette loves her daughter, but after years of expulsions and strained home schooling, her precarious health and sanity are weakening day by day. She’s also becoming increasingly frightened by Hanna’s little games, while her husband Alex remains blind to the failing family dynamics. Soon, Suzette starts to fear that maybe their supposedly innocent baby girl may have a truly sinister agenda.
A battle of wills between mother and daughter reveals the frailty and falsehood of familial bonds in award-winning playwright and filmmaker Zoje Stage’s tense novel of psychological suspense, Baby Teeth.

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MY REVIEW

Suzette and Alex’s daughter, Hanna, is a difficult child. They want to raise her in a loving environment, but it is proving more and more difficult as Hanna’s behavior becomes worse.

Baby Teeth is told from alternating points of view – Suzette and Hanna. Suzette is not only dealing with her difficult child, but also suffers from chronic illness. This combination has created a lot of stress and unhappiness in her life. She notices how devious Hanna is, but Alex doesn’t want to believe anything bad about his little girl. Hanna is seven-years-old, but doesn’t speak and displays anti-social behavior. Hannah is super creepy and diabolical. Suzette is to the point where she can no longer handle Hanna’s behavior, and Hanna is only becoming more cruel toward her mother.

I read a lot of mixed reviews on Baby Teeth, and had originally decided to pass on reading it. I ended up borrowing it from my local library. I found it to be an entertaining and quick read. Some parts were compelling, and I was curious what would happen, but other parts fell flat. Good for fans of psychological thrillers like The Perfect Child and other books featuring creepy kids.

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BOOK INFO

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BOOK BLURB

You’re back home after four years working abroad, new husband in tow. You’re keen to find a place of your own. But for now, you’re crashing in your big brother’s spare room.

That’s when you meet the man next door. He’s the head teacher at the local school. Twice your age. Extraordinarily attractive.

You find yourself watching him. All the time. But you never dreamed that your innocent crush might become a deadly obsession.

Or that someone is watching you.

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MY REVIEW

Multiple people in the same neighborhood have connections in their lives. They watch one another, think about one another, and keep secrets from one another.

This book has a lot of characters and multiple stories happening. At first, I found this confusing, but once I got the hang of who everyone was and how they were connected, it was an enjoyable read. The characters include Joey and her husband Alfie, Jack and his wife Rebecca, The Fitzwilliams, and Jenna and her mom Frances. Joey and Alfie are young newlyweds who got married after a whirlwind romance. They are living with Joey’s brother Jack and his wife Rebecca. The Fitzwilliams are neighbors, and Joey is attracted to Tom Fitzwilliam. Tom is married to Nicola and they have a son, Freddie. Tom is charming and handsome, and attracts the ladies. Freddie spends his free time spying on the neighborhood. Also in the neighborhood are Jenna and her mother Frances. Jenna is a student at the school where Tom works, and Frances is paranoid and mentally unstable.

These residents of the same neighborhood have current lives that intersect, but some of them also have connections in their past. Making things more interesting, some of the neighbors spend time watching one another, and almost everyone has secrets. When a murder takes place in the neighborhood, secrets start to be revealed.

Watching You is a character driven psychological thriller. Maybe it’s because I read a lot of thrillers, but the twists didn’t really come as a surprise. It was still an intriguing read, and one I recommend. Dark, complex, and twisted.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Books by Lisa Jewell:

1. The Third Wife
2. The Girls in the Garden
3. I Found You
4. Then She Was Gone
5. Watching You
6. Invisible Girl
7. The Night She Disappeared
8. None of This Is True