A gripping poignant unique thriller
The characters are relatable and very well written
The author has dealt with sensitive subjects very well and has obviously done a lot of research
The plot is gripping, twisty and suspenseful. This is a compulsive thriller which will get under your skin
A fantastic debut novel

Ruby Speechley's debut novel is a psychological thriller focussing on the sensitive issues surrounding surrogacy. It asks some big questions: to what lengths would you go to help a woman like your own mother overcome a history of miscarriage and still birth? How does poverty affect the choices you make? How much control do you have over the children you give birth to, and what are your legal rights?

This page-turner concerns an ordinary young couple, Charlotte and Steve, who've just had their first, much-loved child and are struggling to make ends meet. It's Charlotte's experience of her own mother's unhappiness that makes her want to give the joy a child can bring to a childless couple. There are very few safeguards in place under the laws around surrogacy, and when we meet Malcolm and Brenda alarm bells ring for the reader; but Charlotte is touchingly naïve. She always thinks the best of the couple.

'Someone Else's Baby' is a well-told and nuanced story of intrigue and deception that keeps you guessing right up to the end.

I would firstly like to thank Netgalley and the publishers for allowing me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

I may have guessed the overall plotline from the beginning but this read, regardless of being a parent myself, still sent me down a path of worry, fret and nail-biting intenseness. The story kept me hooked and on the edge of my seat from beginning to end! With fabulously emotionally relatable characters, and an excellently gripping plot, this one was definitely a page-turner!
Can't wait for this authors next!

I thought this book was great and I loved the characters. Charlotte Morgan just wants to be a surrogate for a childless couple. She finds that couple on a forum and becomes pregnant with twins. When the twins are born the couple and the newborn twins vanish.
I loved Charlotte’s back story and her naïveté, whilst reading you want to shout at her when she misses all these little warning signs that the couple are not right and that there is something going on.
I will definitely be looking out for the authors next book.
Thanks to Hera books and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
#NetGalley #Someoneelsesbaby

Dark, twisted and unsettling, Someone Else’s Baby is the compulsive and terrifying debut novel from a fabulous new star in the genre: Ruby Speechley.

Charlotte Morgan spent most of her childhood watching the sadness and disappointment consume her mother over losing her longed-for babies. It used to break Charlotte’s heart to see her mother’s anguish and despair and now that she is all grown up and a mum herself, she is well aware of how much joy and happiness children can bring. Charlotte’s life completely and utterly revolves around being a mother. It is a tiring yet fulfilling and satisfying occupation which she certainly does not take for granted. As a child, Charlotte would have given anything for her mum’s heart’s desire to become a reality. She had wanted nothing more than for another woman to give her mother the children she yearned for and wanted with all of her heart – which is why Charlotte begins to wonder about becoming a surrogate and carrying a child for a couple who cannot conceive. Charlotte vows to help others achieve this unattainable goal of becoming parents and when she meets Malcolm and Brenda on a surrogacy website, it seems that she has found the ideal couple to help out. But is Charlotte aware of just what she is letting herself in for? Should she think twice before embarking on something which has such far-reaching consequences? Or should she stop letting the doubts get to her and simply pursue this selfless and courageous endeavour?

Malcolm and Brenda seem absolutely perfect. Smart, successful and financially secure, the couple are in their forties and the owners of a very successful business. Well-travelled and cultured, the only thing missing from their perfect domestic idyll is a baby. As Charlotte finds herself getting drawn into their world, she simply cannot wait to give them the child they are so desperate for and when she gives birth to twins, she hands them over; the sadness in her heart outweighed by the joy and happiness which she knows her precious gifts will give Malcolm and Brenda. But has Charlotte’s philanthropic act blinded her to the pervasive darkness which surrounds the couple? How well does Charlotte know Malcolm and Brenda? How honest and truthful were they with Charlotte? And is giving her babies over to virtual strangers going to end up something which she will end up regretting?

As secrets and deceptions unravel and Malcolm and Brenda vanish off the face of the earth, Charlotte needs to find her babies and rescue them from danger – before it’s too late.

Someone Else’s Baby is a gripping and chilling page-turner that is not for the faint-hearted. Ruby Speechley has written a spine-tingling and nerve-twisting thriller that will send your heart rate sky-rocketing with its terrifying blend of nail-biting suspense, twists and turns that will leave you with your mouth open and an ending that will have you hiding behind the sofa.

A book best read with every single light in the house switched on, Someone Else’s Baby is a tense, twisty and terrifyingly brilliant thriller domestic noir fans are simply going to love!

Charlotte had seen the heartbreak her mother had gone though at being unable to have a second child, so she decides to become a surrogate….and husband Steve agrees….they could use the money!

They meet Malcolm and Brenda and start the process…Charlotte gets pregnant with twins and the ‘parents’ are over the moon, but something niggles at Charlotte, Malcolm’s temper and Brenda’s tears, but she’s soon convinced all will be ok…but are Malcolm and Brenda to be trusted ?

Is Charlotte too trusting and just how important is the money? Will she get her babies back?

This is a fast paced and tension packed psychological thriller that deals with the emotive subject of surrogacy in a sympathetic and non-judgmental way. If you like a thriller with an emotion packed plot then you love this…

Thank you to The publishers, the author and NetGalley for a free copy of the ebook. This is my honest, unbiased review.

The main subject of this book is surrogacy, an area most people know happens but probably don’t realise how unregulated it is.

Charlotte, having grown up in a home full of sadness, watching her mothers despair after multiple miscarriages and stillbirths decides she wants to help an older couple have a baby.

Enter Brenda and Malcolm who seem too good to be true. HELLO ALARM BELLS!!! You know the saying “The road to Hell is paved with good intentions ” well this sums this book up perfectly.

Charlotte and her husband are in financial trouble, add this to her fraught relationship with her mother and it leads to rash decisions.

Once the twins are handed over, made more difficult because Charlotte is the biological mother, the cheque bounces and the couple go missing. Here the story really intensifies as you become involved in the hunt.

This is a fast juicy thriller with great characterisation (creepy Malcolm, naive Charlotte and downtrodden Brenda) and would make a great book club read as there are so many thought provoking issues. All in all this is a very accomplished debut.

Really enjoyed this novel. The writing flowed and the characters were depicted very well. Couldn't wait to find out what happens next.

# Someone Else’s Baby # Netgalley
Very interesting book, not being able to have a child of your own. The possibility’s are few and far between. You could look at Adopting a child. Yet some just want babies where they are few and far between. Then look at surrogates to carry. A baby for you. That comes with its own problems. Major ones at that. How many truly are successful. What are the motives behind being a surrogate. Maybe start off with good intentions. However not everyone. This explores why some become such a tangled mess, to answer some of the questions you will have to read this book. So much selfishness going on. It’s a emotional roller coaster of a ride with twists and turns coming at every angle. Must read .

Wow, this is quite a debut novel!

This has me hooked from the outset when you realise Charlotte’s intentions are only to help others.

This was a rollercoaster of emotions and had me thoroughly intrigued.

Look forward to the next book by Ruby Speechley.

Many thanks to Ruby Speechley and Hera Books for the opportunity to read and review this book. Someone else's Baby had me gripped from page one. This book focuses on surrogacy and the impact it can have on the birth mother. When young mother Charlotte decides to help an infertile couple have a family , her whole life changes. She meets Brenda and Malcolm. Why does Malcolm not want his photo taken what is this couple hiding and should Charlotte hand over her precious babies to these people. This book is one to read. Absolutely brilliant.

Loved this book! If this was her debut book and she hooked me this well, I will be sticking with this author. I felt all along something was off and had some guesses as to the plot; some were right, some were wrong. The suspense was great! it was hard to put down! Must read!

Charlotte and Steve having a loving relationship and a happy life with their young daughter. Charlotte wants to fulfill the dreams of another couple and becomes a surrogate for Malcolm and Brenda.
At first everything seems great, but by the time the last payment bounces and Malcolm and Brenda disappear without a trace with the babies, Charlotte knows something is very wrong. I won’t spoil it for you, but this is a must read!

5 Stars from me!

I was sucked into this story immediately and raced through the pages, Someone Else's Baby is an immersive dive into the world of surrogacy and fast paced psychology thriller to boot!

Charlotte and Steve seem to have a genuinely lovely relationship - they live in tiny flat with hardly any money but that old adage 'money can't buy happiness' has never been more true for them seem very together and very in love.

As such it is both weird and yet totally believable that they decide to go ahead with surrogacy. I found it really quite beautiful how supportive he was of her - I know his motivations were more financial but still I would imagine a lot of men wouldn't find it easy to support their partner as lovingly as he did.

The complex relationship between Charlotte and her mum - along with her reason for wanting to become a surrogate - was well handled and the emotional play between the two women was a nice touch.

I won't spoil the storyline, there's lots I could say about Malcolm and Brenda but I will resist! Yes there was something that I assumed all the way along and I was right but it didn't ruin anything for me. Even having said that, this book is packed full of surprising moments and exciting revelations as the story unfolds.

I've not read anything by Ruby Speechley before but it is a name I will look out for in the future as Someone Else's Baby was a gripping read with the added benefit of being about an unusual subject matter - really quite interesting as well as being a fast paced thriller!

’ve got to say, surrogacy isn’t for me. Whilst I was pregnant with my boys, I couldn’t wait to watch them grow up and develop. I admire the women who can go through the nine-month pregnancy and are able to hand over their baby to the intended parents. It has to be such an emotional but rewarding thing to do.
Charlotte’s character, I felt, was portrayed brilliantly. She wanted to do something amazing for a couple who had suffered in the same way her own mother had with miscarriages. Ruby Speechley has created a kind hearted character in Charlotte however, as with all people, she has her flaws which come to the forefront as the story developed.
The first half of the book has a relatively slow pace which you’d expect as this is covers Charlotte’s pregnancy. But just past the halfway point, Speechley slowly starts to tighten the screws of the thriller aspect to the book. After being dropped small seeds of doubt about Malcolm’s behaviour towards Brenda, his attitude changes and the couple disappear of the face of the earth. Malcolm is a bit of an oddball…not my cup of tea at all!!
I really enjoyed Someone Else’s Baby, it’s an excellent debut from Speechley. I’ll be keeping my eye out for her future books!

Charlotte grew up feeling unwanted and unloved,her youth blighted by her mother's repeated miscarriages. Her one wish had been that another woman would give her mother the baby that she craved.

Charlotte is now married to Steve and they have a young daughter Alice who brings so much love into their lives that Charlotte decides to help others achieve their dreams of becoming parents.

When she finds Malcolm and Brenda on a surrogacy website,it seems that she has found the perfect couple and they are all overjoyed when Charlotte falls pregnant with twins. Although it breaks Charlotte's heart when she hands over the twins,her reward is knowing how much happiness the two babies are going to bring into the couple's lives.

But when their last payment cheque bounces and Malcolm and Brenda vanish,without a trace,Charlotte and Steve and plunged into a living nightmare and a frantic search to find Charlotte's missing babies - before it's too late.

Someone Else's Babies is a heart string pulling,thought-provoking warning of the dangers of trusting people at face value. Of what happens when you don't do the proper background checks and how easy it is for unscrupulous people to take advantage of vulnerable people and the loop holes in the UK surrogacy laws. As the story unfolds,Charlotte goes through a myriad of realistic emotions as she struggles to cope with her constantly conflicting thoughts and feelings. I thought that Charlotte was a very frustrating character at times and that it was rather ironic that because of her obsession with the twins,she was treating Alice in the exact same way that Charlotte 's own mother treated her when she was younger. To begin with,I wasn't sure about Steve,despite his reasons being honourable,all he seemed interested in was the money and he dismissed Charlotte's concerns that she was being followed by a mysterious woman.

You could say that this is a story with two parts,the first half covers Charlotte's struggles to conceive and her health issues whilst she was carrying the twins. There was hints and small clues that things were not as they appeared to be but it wasn't until after the twins were born and handed over to Malcolm and Brenda that the story really went into thriller mode. Then there is the mysterious disappearance of Malcolm and Brenda,a death,the uncovering of the truth and the frantic search for the babies. This is a extremely well written,debut thriller that holds the reader attention throughout and had me frantically turning the pages. The information on surrogacy was in-depth and fascinating and the story had a intense conclusion. I really enjoyed this enthralling story and look forward to reading more books written by this author in the future.

This was a wonderful story, and thank you netgalley for letting me read this early edition of someone else’s baby.
Charlotte wanted to help a family by having a baby for them as the woman Brenda could not have one.
The problem was Charlotte and Steve did not find out enough about the people who wanted a baby.
There lives fell apart as Malcolm and Brenda the couple who wanted there baby were. Not what they seemed to.be,

Wow! Such an incredible book! If you're wondering whether or not you should read Someone Else's Baby, stop thinking, and Do It! I am so glad I did! There are so many great things to say about this story, I don't even know where to start. Speechley takes a real-life issue and brings it to life in a way that's so emotional and real, and I felt like I was part of Charlotte's journey through this entire ordeal. As a woman who's suffered a stillbirth and miscarriages and truly considered surrogacy for a time, this story took me on a roller coaster of a ride. I hated when I had to put the story down in order to work or whatever. When I wasn't reading it, I was thinking about reading it. And now that I've finished it, I'm still thinking about it! I say Kudos to the author for doing such an amazing job!

Ever since she was a girl Charlotte has been aware that not all women can have children. Her mum suffered several losses and this drives Charlotte on to try to help a couple have a child of their own.

This is an interesting look at surrogacy and the law, or lack thereof, surrounding the same. I gobbled this book up in one sitting as I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep until I had finished it. It was a good thriller and I look forward to seeing what Ruby Speechley writes next.

This book twisted my insides in the most delicious of ways. I was honestly blown away by the story arc and the style of writing. The author Ruby Speechley has chosen the most gray areas of medicine and law, blended them smoothly, added bucketful of suspense and trepidation to give me a story which hooked me from beginning to end. SURROGACY!!

Charlotte wanted to do a good deed and help a couple have a child of their own by optioning to be a surrogate mother. She chose a couple in their 40s unable to have one after multiple miscarriages as the intended parents. She bonded with her twins in utero and didn't want to give them UP. Something kept twining in her as the days went by. After a lot of life threatening medical events, she did hand the children over to the couple, and THEY DISAPPEARED. Then began the most exciting of stories with some scary revelations.

Ruby Speechley in her debut has knocked this one out of the part. I couldn't remember ever being so excited by a book. Short, snappy chapters made the book read faster. The rising panic in each made my heart thud faster. I literally became one with the book, glued to my kindle. Nothing could break my bond with this book.

And the emotions... Oh the emotions... Each chapter showed me what Charlotte felt. She was such an easy character to love. No good deed goes unpunished, so it is said. And Charlotte experienced the full brunt of it. There were times I had to move away from the book, which in this case meant close my eyes, as I couldn't move away from the story. Why, what, how kept me in a constant spate of turmoil.

The delicious roiling in my innards and the painful thudding of my heart made this the most awesome of my reads. And kudos to the author for finding the most thrilling of subjects - SURROGACY