I found this book really interesting regarding the history of the asylum.  Although i had a difficult time connecting with the characters and their need to go to such great lengths to keep the secret they were keeping.

I would like to thank St.Martins press, minotaur books and netgalley for a copy in exchange for an honest review

Fans of thrillers won't be disappointed, but I find some of the story lines difficult to follow. It is a DARK novel, but characters are connectable

Marianne worked hard to get away from the small town where she grew up. In Nusstead, the mental hospital where most of the residents worked closed down, and jobs have been hard to come by ever since. The government promised new jobs, as they sold the closed hospital to a developer who would turn it into a luxury hotel, but that never materialized. So as a teenager, Marianne had to choose between a better education—a better life—for herself, or a life in Nusstead with her high school boyfriend.

She coldly chose to turn her back on Nusstead, and on Jesse, to find something more.

However, a dark secret still ties her to her hometown, and to Jesse, and it has the potential to destroy her well sculpted life. As an adult, Marianne is married with a daughter, she is a respected authority on historical architecture, and she has to revisit Nusstead to help care for her aging mom. Will she be able to keep her secrets at bay, or will the wolves come calling for blood?

Helen Greenlaw was an advocate for better mental health care for patients. She knew that the hospital in Nusstead was a danger to its patients and needed to close. It wasn’t just her decision to close the hospital, but she was the one who forced its sudden closing, not allowing time for the patients or the workers to transition well to their next chapter. Many in Nusstead blamed her for the loss of their livelihoods. But what they don’t know, what they can’t know, is that she had secrets too; that her secrets are tied to those of Marianne and Jesse; and she’d do anything to stop them coming out.

She coldly chose to turn her back on Nusstead, and its major employer, to try to improve the care of mental patients throughout England.

Stone Mothers by Erin Kelly is a complex look at what it means to be a mother, what kind of sacrifices a woman will make for her child, and the secrets and lies that those choices can lead to. Moving back through time, the women’s stories bend and twist, at times coming together and at other times moving in opposite directions. Themes of love and sacrifice, selfishness and generosity, ego and control are on display in this complicated look at family and ambition.

I found Stone Mothers a little uneven at times, slowing down for me and then speeding up in turn. But the more I read, the more I liked it and found the rhythms reassuring. This is a far more powerful and thoughtful novel than I first expected, and I grew to respect these characters deeply. This is not just your average thriller, with its secrets exposed and families devastated. The nuances of the choices, of the relationships, of the desperation elevate this from a typical quick-read thriller to a moving work of literary fiction that can expand your definition of a mother’s love in all directions. Highly recommended!

Galleys for Stone Mothers were provided by St. Martin’s Press through NetGalley, with many thanks.

Stone Mothers by Erin Kelly is a psychological thriller that is told from multiple points of view and from different points in time. There are three main viewpoints from Marianne, Honor and Helen.

Marianne had left her hometown as a teenager and had not returned since. Now however Marianne’s mother has become ill and in a kind gesture her husband buys a home in her old town to be near her mother but Marianne can’t help but feel the secrets of her past coming back to haunt her.

Erin Kelly was an author I was familiar with having read her novel, He Said/She Said. That book for me was one that while I didn’t find it perfect I do remember the story being compelling and liking it well enough in the end to want to take a chance with this book. However, Stone Mothers for me was one that I just never really found myself invested in or connecting to at all being very slow moving in my opinion so it just wasn’t my cup of tea.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

This was a tough read for me. The premise was good but the pace was very slow.

Thanks to Negalley for the free copy in exchange for an honest review.

I typically like stories that are told from different perspectives - they often provide the reader with a richer plot. However, not all authors are able to successfully switch POVs. Kelly's tactic was to switch POVs but then also change the time periods of the events being discussed. For example, the novel begins in 2018, then moves to a different character's POV in the 1980s, then again to someone else in the 1950s. I like the idea of the reader gaining more information the further back in time they are, but this method left me feeling confused and disconnected from the story (instead of more drawn in). I also found that the beginning was frustrating to read - there's a lot of talk about a mysterious event but no details on what that is until at least a quarter of the way in. There was some suspense that I enjoyed, but I would definitely not classify this as a thriller. Also, it felt like there were way too many side characters - I couldn't keep track of who was important. And while some characters were more fully fleshed out (Helen Greenlaw) than others, I only found myself connected to just a few. I did appreciate Kelly's portrayal of mental illness and how it was incorrectly treated decades ago (I wish more of the novel had been spent on this). Overall, it really came down to the structure of the novel not working for me - I liked the idea for the story, just not the execution.

I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.
Thanks NetGalley!

This was a truly interesting read. It hooked me from the start, and I seriously could NOT put it down. Everyone should read this book. The book is described as a psych thriller, but I think i'd label this more as a drama.

What a story! It’s mostly told from Marianne’s point of view but you have a fascinating, and horrifying, backdrop from the “evil” Helen Greenlaw.

The book starts in 2018 with our introduction to Marianne and her husband Sam. They are in their late 40’s and have been quite successful in their careers and finances. Marianne didn’t always have a charmed life, coming from the poor town of Nusstead, living hand to mouth. Marianne’s mother still lives in Nusstead and is declining rapidly. She makes the trip from London to see her Mum and daughter Honor as often as she can. Devoted husband Sam has a surprise in store for his wife, but unbeknownst to him it won’t be a welcome one. This is where you get the backstory and the secrets.

We flash to 1988 when Marianne was young teen and meets Jesse Brame at school. Without getting into to much detail lets just say they were young, in love and poor as dirt. The mental asylum Nazareth closed and put most of the village out of work, including Marianne’s mum, Jesse’s father and brother. Government official Helen Greenlaw was the one responsible for the closure and the hatred of this rich unsympathetic women was legend in Nusstead.

Marianne is intelligent, Jesse is devoted (more so than Marianne), and between them they devise a plan they think is foolproof. Unfortunately it will change and ruin the lives of four people. Then it gets worse....if you can imagine.

Before we write Helen Greenlaw off as a cold government official who never knew strife, we get a picture of her life back in 1958 when a young lady had zero rights. Her story and that of the East Anglia Lunatic Asylum will run your blood cold. Toss these main characters together in an unimaginable scenario and you have a disastrous event they must keep secret forever.

It’s Marianne who worries her present and past life will intersect and cause all the carefully guarded secrets from her youth to explode, shattering her world. Helen Greenlaw also had a lot to lose but no one ever knew her backstory. I do believe Marianne would have been sympathetic to Helen’s plight.

The ending chapters give up quite a bit of information and all the pieces fit together nicely. It’s not necessarily a happy ending for all parties but it’s conclusive. I’m going to write more on Goodreads where I can hide the spoilers.

I saw the phrase “going round the bend” referred to as going crazy, or how the drive ways/entrances curve to mental asylums. Apparently it was to screen the potential inmates from view and keep them from seeing the hospital straight on. I didn’t know that but have certainly used the phrase over the years.

Not a foodie book but I did note the meals and drinks as I read. Dressed crab, beetroot and feta salad, large glasses of Cabernet Sauvignon, seared salmon and zucchini, grilled streak, avocado smash on sourdough bread, fish pie, a casserole with chicken and olives, gin and tonics with Bombay Sapphire.

Much thanks to Netgalley for the complimentary copy of this book. I read this and immediately planned to get more work by Erin Kelly. In my opinion this book would be great for a book club discussion. This book was published April 23, 2019 – go get a copy!

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the advanced copy for review. Erin Kelly is one of my favorite authors. Can you imagine having your husband drive you to a mysterious location and tell you he has bought this for you. But this same place means nothing but nightmares to you. This book was fascinating from beginning to end and the energy was intense throughout the book. From the first few sentences I could not put the book down because I was so curious about what was the terrible thing that Marianne, Jesse and the lady called Hellen did so many years ago.

I had previously read Kelly’s He Said/She said and was really looking forward to reading this book. I didn’t enjoy it as much as her other novel, but it was still engaging and interesting. I liked learning about the not so long ago way that mental illness used to be treated. One of my dislikes for the book was the way the author dealt with the past/present. I would have preferred to be switching between storylines every chapter instead of having big chunks of different stories then moving to the next. I also felt that in the effort to go to the next chunk of the story, certain things weren’t explained very well, and I was wondering if the ebook was missing a part

I read Stone Mothers with a couple of my Instagram friends and it lead to such a great discussion.

Victorian mental asylum, deep dark secrets threatened to be exposed and the lengths these characters take to keep them buried.

The Stone Mothers is an atmospheric, slow-burn psychological thriller that at times I found a bit like a drama rather than a thriller. I love a good atmospheric read with walls that hold secrets begging to be told and this story sure delivers on that. However, the part that didn’t quite deliver for me was the suspense I needed but that was ok because the drama part of the story was well done.

The story started off a bit slow at building the suspense and tension however it left us feeling as Heidi described as feeling like we were all part of a group but were the only ones who didn’t know what everyone was talking about. We felt like we were kept in the dark. I started to feel a bit impatient and frustrated and that slowed down the story for me. The story did pick up for me at Part two and I began to turn those pages as fast as I could to see how everything wrapped up in the end.

What I really liked about this story and made the story for me I can’t really say as it could be a spoiler for some people. I guess that’s what makes discussing in a group so great. I highly recommend for buddy/group reads.

I received an advanced digital copy of this book from the author, Netgalley.com and St. Martin's Press. Thanks to all for the opportunity to read and review.

Stone Mothers is an eerie tale of secrets and lies, past and present, choices and regret. Ms. Kelly is an atmospheric author. She can weave an amazing tale that is gripping and chilling.

The only reason that I didn't give it 5 stars was that it did take a little long in my opinion to get the story rolling. Once it did, buckle in!

3 out of 5 stars. A good read.

This is my first Erin Kelly novel and after reading stone mothers I had to pick up her other novel he said/she said.

Stone mothers was enjoyable but did take me a little bit to really get into it but once I did I couldn't put it down. It had good mysteries to it and well written plot that was very character driven.

I enjoyed this novel because it was creepy and once the story starts to unravel i was completely drawn into the story and had to find out the final ending to the story.

Stone Mothers book review - no spoilers -
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Happy pub day to Stone Mothers! I finished it just in time. Thank you to @netgalley and @stmartinspress for the advanced reading copy in exchange for an honest review.
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This novel is full of tension. There's a lot left unexplained in the first half of the novel but it makes for a nice build. Stone Mothers isn't a whirlwind thriller, it's a slow burn. Throughout my experience with the story I found I lacked a good connection to any of the main characters, I was more interested in the Nazareth building itself and it's dark history. I longed for those chapters and I still don't fully grasp how impactful the main point of conflict was to Helen. In the end, did it really matter if certain truths were revealed and to whom? This would be what drove me to a 3.5/5. It was a good story but left me questioning too much and connected to too little.
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Here's the official synopsis if you want to check it out for yourself:
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You can't keep the secret.
You can't tell the truth.
You can't escape the past...

Marianne was seventeen when she fled her home in Nusstead – leaving behind her family, her boyfriend, Jesse, and the body they buried. Now, thirty years later, forced to return to in order to help care for her sick mother, she can feel the past closing around her. And Jesse, who never forgave her for leaving in the first place, is finally threatening to expose the truth.

Marianne will do anything to protect the life she's built, the husband and daughter who must never know what happened all those years ago. Even if it means turning to her worst enemy for help... But Marianne may not know the whole story – and she isn't the only one with secrets they'd kill to keep.

I had been seeing this book everywhere so was very excited to be able to read it early. I was very intrigued by the story but I have to admit the writing was a little hard to follow. I enjoyed the characters and thought they bought interesting facts to the story but I kept getting lost along the way. I would still recommend this book to friends because I did enjoy this book and think some of my followers would enjoy it too.

This was a disappointing miss for me - I felt it was extremely slow moving and I had to push myself to finish. These aren’t the phrases I want to use when I’m describing a thriller/psychological suspense.

From the beginning, we know that Marianne has some secrets in her past - things she would do just about anything to keep her husband and daughter from learning. We go on to slowly learn what happened in the past.

The story is told from different perspectives and timelines - filling in details of what happened in the past and coming back to current day. I don’t want to say much more as it would be spoilers - but I recommend passing on this one.

Thank you very much to Netgalley and the publisher for the review copy in exchange for my honest review.

There was a time when hospitals for the insane were known as Stone Mothers. It was believed that even the architecture of the building could add to the eventual healing of the mentally ill. Erin Kelly takes us to Norfolk, England to a remote and isolated mental hospital originally known as the East Anglia Pauper Lunatic Asylum, and later known as Nazareth Hospital before it's closure in the mid-1980s.

I found it very enlightening as we travel back and forth through time there, from the 1950s into the present, and explore the myriad changes the treatment of mental insanity has evolved through during that time frame. It is a lot to absorb, and add in the fact that several generations of the families of the small town of Nusstead depended solely on the hospital for employment. Even it's eventual reconstruction into apartments could not bring Nusstead back to life.

The book is chillingly entertaining. I enjoyed or at least recognized most of the characters in this novel. We have all known these general types of crazy, one way or another. I found it interesting and a bit intimidating that almost immediately after introduction my mind was able to envision what that character was going to do, next. Well, except for the Right Honorable Helen Greenlaw - she managed to surprise me several times. Altogether an entertaining story after you get past the self-diagnosis stage.

I am happy to enthusiastically recommend this novel to friends and family. You may not be as crazy as you think...

I received a free electronic copy of this historical novel from Netgalley, Erin Kelly, and Hodder & Stoughton. I have read and reviewed this novel of my own volition. This review reflects my honest opinion of this work.

I really hate writing average reviews. They are the hardest! I read Stone Mothers and while it started good, at some point I lost the interest and almost DNF but managed to get to the end. You know when you keep reading and reading and it just doesn’t pick up? And I’m not talking about slow starts (although this could be considered a very slow one) I’m talking about those borderline boring. I loved He said/She said and I was excited for this one but it just wasn’t for me. I always encourage readers to give it a try no matter what because books speak different to everybody!

I’ve read several books which are based on true stories of the bizarre and terrible ways people were treated for what was considered mental illness and the stories are always cringy and fascinating. In Stone Mothers by Erin Kelly, Marianne not happy when her husband buys an apartment in the former Nazareth Mental Hospital, now known as Park Manor. Because Marianne has a connection to the place, she is less than thrilled.

By the way, “Stone Mother” is a Victorian term for an asylum. I didn’t know that, did you?

Marianne was seventeen when she fled her home in Nusstead – leaving behind her family, her boyfriend, Jesse, and the body they buried. Now, thirty years later, forced to return to in order to help care for her sick mother, she can feel the past closing around her. And Jesse, who never forgave her for leaving in the first place, is finally threatening to expose the truth.

Marianne will do anything to protect the life she’s built, the husband and daughter who must never know what happened all those years ago. Even if it means turning to her worst enemy for help… But Marianne may not know the whole story – and she isn’t the only one with secrets they’d kill to keep.

The story is told from the point of view of Marianne and takes us back to 1958 telling the story of Helen. It’s a very well written book and as I always talk about, I love a plot I haven’t seen a million times before.

Hello! 🖤 I finished Stone Mothers last night. Honestly I’m not sure how I feel about this one. I’ve shared that my netgalley copy was formatted weird, and it was making it hard to get into. Which is true, but now I don’t know how much of it was the formatting and how much was the story. I would definitely qualify this one as a slow burn.
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The book is broken up into 4 parts, focusing on 3 different characters. I really liked the middle section, which was Helen’s story. I think I would have enjoyed the story more if the entire book was told from her perspective.
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As an avid thriller/mystery reader I’m not sure this fits what I picture for the genre. I’ve shared the synopsis before, and I’ll leave it in the comments this time. Overall, it was just good. For me, it wasn’t a must-read. I think I’m still processing my thoughts! 🖤 I think I’ll give this one a 3 ⭐️
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