Heavily pregnant Andrea moves to a new neighbourhood with her husband and son. She quickly befriends her neighbour Gabby but both women are keeping secrets…
Heavily pregnant Andrea moves to a new neighbourhood with her husband and son. She quickly befriends her neighbour Gabby but both women are keeping secrets…The Stay At Home Mother is a psychological thriller and domestic drama set in Australia.
The book is written from the alternating perspectives of Gabby and Andrea. Both women are flawed and vulnerable and there are clues that deeper secrets are being withheld from us as well as each other.
Neither woman is particularly happy. They are both stay at home mothers but at very different stages. Andrea has a toddler and is almost ready to give birth again. Gabby has a sullen teenager. I think all mums will be able to identify with them as they sacrifice their own selves for the sake of harmony in their families as well as their children’s happiness.
There is a great tension which builds over the course of the book. I enjoyed the sinister hints which creates an anticipation as I tried to work out Gabby and Andrea’s secrets. The different viewpoints allows us to see that both women are keeping secrets from the other. The ending had a great twist that made me re-evaluate one of the characters and all their interactions.
The Stay At Home Mother has two wonderfully imperfect lead characters and an engaging plot.
The Stay-at-Home Mother: A completely addictive psychological thriller packed with jaw-dropping twists
Her chest tightens, her heart speeding up. The kitchen is chaos. She steps on something hard, and looks down. Toy dinosaurs are scattered everywhere. But her son is nowhere – her baby boy is gone.
The police arrive. She can’t look at her husband. Instead, she studies the network of lines on her shaking hands.
Then her phone beeps with a voice message. ‘Listen to it on speaker,’ says the detective.
A woman’s voice fills the air.
‘I’m assuming this is the Andrea Gately listed as a contact on the Missing Children of the World website. I’m calling to let you know that I’ve given your details to the police. Why are you using a picture of my son on a missing children’s website? Why are you using it and where did you get it?’
An absolutely unputdownable psychological thriller that will leave you gasping with shock and staying up way past your bedtime. Perfect for fans of Lisa Jewell, Liane Moriarty and Adele Parks.
Buy link: https://geni.us/B0BHDLL537cover
About the author
Nicole Trope went to university to study Law but realised the error of her ways when she did very badly on her first law essay because-as her professor pointed out- ‘It’s not meant to be a story.’ She studied teaching instead and used her holidays to work on her writing career and complete a Masters’ degree in Children’s Literature.
The idea for her first published novel, The Boy under the Table, was so scary that it took a year for her to find the courage to write the emotional story. She went on to publish a further five novels in Australia before joining Bookouture in 2019. She is a USA Today and Amazon bestseller in the USA, UK, AUS and CAN.
Nicole lives in Sydney with her husband and three children.
Author social media
Facebook: @NicoleTrope
Twitter: @nicoletrope
Author email sign up: https://www.bookouture.com/nicole-trope
