Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for an ARC of this book. It looked super interesting and had its good parts, but overall made for a read that just wasn’t that great.

Read on to know why.

Genre:

Thriller, Suspense

Length:

368 pages

Blurb:

Finding out she’s pregnant after a one-night stand leaves young and broke Roz, terrified. She knows she wants to bring her baby into the world. But she doesn’t want it to have the same chaotic upbringing that she had had. Determined to do what’s best for her child, she signs up on an elite adoption service website. Within days, she is on the way to New York to meet with a celebrity power couple whose names she doesn’t yet know, leaving behind her only friend. Sheridan and Daniel are wealthy and kind, and the perfect parents that Roz could have wanted for her baby. Within hours of meeting Sheridan, she has signed away her freedom until the baby’s birth so that Sheridan can pass the event off as her own pregnancy. Once settled in their basement suite, Roz begins to realize that not everything is as welcoming as it seems. And when she finds out that there had been another woman who’d moved into the suite before her, a woman who had simply disappeared, she realizes that she may have made a terrible mistake. Her baby is the only reason she believes she’s alive. What happens when her due date, which is coming closer by the day, arrives?

Overall Rating:

5 out of 10

Plot:

5 out of 10

Characterization:

3 out of 10

Primary Element:

6 out of 10 for its suspense

Writing Style:

7 out of 10

Part of a Series:

No.

Highlighted Takeaway:

An endearing writing style, which is strongly representative of Irish slang and mannerisms.

What I Liked:

The Perfect Mother has an interesting basic premise. It reads smoothly, and moves fast enough. Unfortunately, these aren’t enough to overshadow the negatives of the book.

What I Didn’t Like:

Characters were just too shallow and behaved in the most irrational ways possible. I know that tough situations can call for strange behaviors, but this was just too implausible. Also, the characters are not fleshed out. They act and do what the situation demands more than the story building around the characters and how they would actually react.

Another thing that really got to me was how convenient everything was in the story and the characters’ reactions. It felt like the author had a very obvious predetermined arc and that everything and everyone played a role to fulfill it, consequently making the story too unrealistic to associate with or really enjoy.

Who Should Read It:

I would not actively recommend this book to anyone because if it’s a suspense or thriller novel that you’re looking for, there are definitely many other options out there that would do better.

Who Should Avoid:

Anyone who does not like shallow characters and a storyline based on convenient inputs rather than a fleshed-out book where story and characters build off of one another.

Read It For:

If anything, the endearing mannerisms and slang that the writing style offers.

I still think Caroline Mitchell’s work could be good, if her writing style is anything to go by. I may or may not try another one of her books, but would have definitely loved to see her style combined with better characterization and story development. All in all, The Perfect Mother by Caroline Mitchell was not a great read, and not something I would actively recommend.

If you’re interested in reading it though, The Perfect Mother is expected to release on 14 January 2020.

Thanks for stopping by!

– Rishika