My Mother's Secret by Sanjida Kay

          I really wanted to like this book, it starts off so well as we are introduced to Emma and her stroppy teenage daughter Stella and are starting to get to know quiet, intelligent Lizzie.  Obviously not everything is at it seems at first or else there would be no Mother's Secret to unfurl.  As is popular in the genre each chapter is devoted to one character so we can see the same action from different viewpoints.  However, this is what spoils the book as it gives away the big reveal quite early on so you then start reading just to get to the end and find out just how everyone becomes aware of the secret.

The character of Stella is particularly well written.  She shows all the angst and changeable mood of a normal 15 year old girl, along with the foul mouth and propensity for hiding her life from her parents.  Her relationship with her younger sister and her friends is of the hot/cold variety that just feels right for her age and the things she is finding out.  Sadly, this is the only character that felt complete throughout the whole book.

Lizzie is the quintessential Country Mouse and loves nothing more than a good Lake District hike with her baby son and husband.  Emma is the Town Mouse with her therapist husband, posh house and job that she doesn't really need financially but for her own self-respect.  Both women are written as tired cliches and although the author tries I never really felt I got under the skin of either of them and didn't really care about their convoluted, entangled lives.

The biggest problem is with the execution of the plot.  The idea is a sound one (I won't go into it in detail here as that will spoil the book for you if you decide to read it).  Because some of the cataclysmic events happen prior to the tale being told her the flashback chapters give away exactly what is happening.  Even the interpersonal relationships between Lizzie and Paul and Emma and Jack flag up what is happening.  With a thriller you really want to be kept guessing and I simply wasn't; I even had the little twists worked out before they were revealed as the writing standard wasn't such that when you got to the denouement you went "Oohhhh, so that's why X said that to Y".

I did feel slightly cheated by the book as well.  The first 2 or 3 chapters are so immersive that I was up for burning the midnight oil to find out what happened.  Instead I ended up reading this alongside another book as I kept becoming disinterested in what was happening and needed a respite from the unrelenting bleakness of the relationships between wives and husbands and daughters and parents. 

There is nothing that makes this book stand out in a very crowded genre and as this is the Author's third novel in the genre I would have expected a lot more; I certainly won't be rushing to check out her earlier books.

I RECEIVED A FREE COPY OF THIS BOOK FROM READER'S FIRST IN EXCHANGE FOR AN HONEST REVIEW.