The Rival had me so confused, in a good way, on who to root for, Ashley or Helena? Helena has been a career woman and loving wife. Isn't that all you need to be happy? Until she hires Ashley, a young ambitious woman who will fight to become successful. They become a dream team and work well together until Helena gets pregnant. Things start to become very messy, let the fight begin!!!

The storyline was decent and I was able to stay engaged but I did get annoyed with all the deception. At times I felt I was watching a Lifetime movie.

I loved this book. This book took me by surprise of how much I actually loved it. I didnt guess the ending and was so engrossed in the story I wanted to know what happened. I connected with all the characters . I highly recommend this book.

This novel focuses on Helena, a successful business woman, and Ashley, a young ambitious woman mentored by Helena. Helena gives up work after having a baby...but where is the baby? How is Ashley involved?
A gripping psychological thriller/women’s fiction novel told in alternating timelines and characters’ points of view, this story doesn’t disappoint!

Wow, what a thrillingly scary read!! The story is told from the perspectives of two strong women, that of Helena and Ashley. The book jumps between the present and the past, but its done so smoothly, its not confusing, and forms a nice part of the timeline. The book was well written and thrilling until the very end. Recommended.

This story alternates between then and now, for both Helena and her protégé Ashley, you know something has happened but what? You won't have a clue. This book flowed smoothly and kept my interest throughout. I look forward to reading more books by this author.

Great thriller about motherhood, rivalry, ambition, and the lengths someone is willing to go to get what they want. The main characters are interesting and realistic-neither is presented as too much of any negative trait or too little of a redeeming quality. While the book starts with a slow burn with a timeline that is a bit foggy, once you get into it, you can't put it down.

I would like to thank Quercus Publishing and the Netgalley website for this partnership.

I was immediately attracted to the cover of this book: you see a woman in front and in profile.

It all began when Helena, who was unemployed, blamed Ashley for destroying her life. Before they worked together, they formed a great team until one day.....

I loved this novel based on rivalry, mental health, motherhood and where people can go to get what they want. A captivating story, full of suspense and twists and turns with engaging characters.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator

A great psychological suspense story. A page turner. I couldn't predict what was gonna happen and I also couldn't put it down. Book some time for this. Highly recommend!

This is an addictive psychological suspense thriller about ambition, rivalry, mental health and motherhood and how far you'd ever go to get what you want.

A very disturbing read about someone taking over another person's job and life and Helena and Ashley are two women who can love and hate alternately because they both had redeeming characteristics, with an underlying evil streak.

The timeline was a bit hard to follow at first, but once I was in the swing of it, I was fascinated by the storyline and loved the book.

Being a career woman and having dealt with professional rivalry a time or two, I thought this book would be a great read. Boy was I right. If you enjoy devious freebies, bosses with questionable ethics, twists and turns, you'll love this book.

great novel with amazing twists and a fantastic ending. Great narration from both main characters and suspenseful builds with the time slip elements.

Two women, two points of view. Now and then. Two very different lives. They meet at work and soon become rivals on the job, but when Helena gives birth to her baby things get out of control. Memories aren't always truthful and things are not always as they seem.
The time and POV switches are a bit irritating in the beginning. The mysteries stays mysterious for the bigger part of the novel and will keep you reading. Unfortunately its difficult to relate to the characters because they aren't nice or reasonable.

Helena is a business woman who is focused on her work while her husband is ready to start a family and she isn’t she doesn’t want to give up her career. Ashely is a young up in comer that Helena hires and takes her under her wing. In the beginning Ashley is perfect and does everything Helena asks. But what starts as a friendship ends up being a cut throat battle between them. Especially after Helena falls pregnant what happens next will change both woman! Loved it sat and read almost the entire book in one sitting

I absolutely loved the concept of this book, the 'then' and 'now' structure really kept me intrigued.
The 2 female characters are very believable and likeable, the plot explores the relationship between women and career paths. The different twists in the story kept me gripped throughout, I even exclaimed 'oh my God' when I thought Helena did something dreadful with her baby, that just shows how emersed I was.
The story unfolds at a clever pace, at no point could I work out the ending, this story is definitely not predictable.
A gripping read that I thoroughly recommend.

This will be a short review because I did not like this book. It took until a little over halfway through to really start getting into it, so if you're an impatient reader this is not a book for you.

Reasons I did not like this books: The "now and then" format was jarring, the characters unlikeable, and the plot slow to develop.
Reasons I did like this book: One thing it did have going for it was a fantastic twist ending. I absolutely did not see the ending coming and it blew me away.

I did like this book better, and the entire story made a heck of a lot more sense, once it was explained that the book was about mental illness and not an evil business partner. Post partum psychosis is a severe and under discussed illness, and the subtlety to which it is brought up makes the storyline drawn out until the end.

If you like to savor drama and unravel personal mysteries, this is an excellent book for you.

A strong psychological suspense story. A page turner. I couldn't predict what was gonna happen and I also couldn't put it down. The Rival is told between the past and the present of Helena and Ashley, and it is about their rivalry, although really, it is about so much more as well. Absolutely addictive and the ending was very emotional. A powerful book.

Helena is happily married and a successful business woman. Her husband is desperate to have children but Helena doesn't want to give up her career. Not yet anyways even though he's been asking her for over five years. They're in their mid-thirties and her husband Jack doesn't want to wait much longer but she can't possibly sacrifice everything she's been working so hard for to simply be a mother.

Ashley is a young up-in-comer that Helena hires and takes under her wing. In the beginning Ashley showed such promise and reminded Helena a lot of herself. Her ambition seemed to know no bounds.

But what started promising becomes a cut-throat battle between the two.

"You're not in competition with her, I have to remind myself. The opposite, in fact. You're not rivals, you're meant to be a team."

Then, unexpectedly, Helena becomes pregnant and the lives of both of these women will never be the same again.

Can a woman choose career over children? Of course she can.

Does that make her less of a woman? Of course not.

If a woman that decides to have one child any less of a mother than the one that has house full of them? Of course not.

Is it okay that after having a child a woman begins to question her place in the world? Of course it is.

As a mother of one 12 year old son I can't tell you how many times, especially when he was much younger, that I would be asked by family, acquaintances, and even strangers themselves...."So when are you having another one?" When I would tell them that I had no plans to have another one I would see the flash of disappointment or even pity as if I've let them down personally. I didn't quite make the mother cut in their eyes. Pfft, one kid, she mustn't know what she's doing.

INFURIATING, but enough about me.

This book was an unexpected surprise for me and I devoured it. The book is broken down into three parts, with dual narrators, and with past and present chapters between the two. Sounds confusing but Ms. Duckworth managed to do it seamlessly. This was a strange one in the sense that I felt much differently about these women at the end of the book than I did at the beginning. I could sympathize with both of their plights.

Also a big thank you to the author for including her authors note at the end explaining her own battle with postpartum depression and also the inclusion of helplines for any woman out their that may be dealing with it. You are not alone and never ever forget that. 4 stars!

Thank you to NetGalley & Quercus Books for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The book started out a bit slow but, thankfully, it picked up as it went out. The mystery is solid, and the ending is somewhat unexpected.

Thanks for NetGalley for the complimentary copy.

Thanks for the early review copy!

I recommend this novel to fans of mystery novels. It was well-written and interesting novel.

An excellent read which gripped me from first to last. It was impossible not to be drawn into the anguish Helena was suffering - and the end was unexpected (in a good way). Highly recommend