I have mixed feelings on this book. The storyline was interesting yet nothing new. The characters were one dimensional and nothing kept me drawn in. I wanted to like this book, hence the mixed feelings.

Rosalind Foley shares a flat with her best friend. They are very close but this day in particular Roz is reluctant to share her news. Roz knows she must, but she still dreads imparting this piece of news. Dympna must know though because she cannot hide it from her friend. The task seems even worse than going to her local Priest to confess her sins, but it must be done. So she takes a deep breath and tells Dympna that she has fallen pregnant after a drunken night of passion. What she point blank refuses to divulge though, is the name of the man that is the father of her child. Soon the deed is done and Roz explains how she intends to keep her secret and find a perfect mother for her baby without anyone knowing she has given birth.
Roz has been busy and now has a solution that seems the only way out for a good Irish girl. She has contacted an elite adoption agency with a difference. She has been contacted by an anonymous ‘Diamond Couple’, rich and famous beyond belief soon after downloading her information. She is very excited as it has happened so quickly and their situation seems ideal. They are talking about their offer of discretion and a solution to her thorny problem. Roz will tell everybody that she has landed an exciting but temporary job in New York. The couple will house her and keep her well-fed and healthy until the baby arrives, when they will pass off the child as their own and send her home with an amazing gift of an eye-watering amount of money to set her up for the future. Dympna is suspicious and tries to talk her out of the arrangement, but Roz is determined and is buzzing with energy. Very soon she sets off to a prearranged meeting in a posh New York hotel. She is well impressed and raring to go.
This is Roz’s story of what happens next in this thrilling and totally bizarre story. I have followed Caroline Mitchell eagerly through her two series of police procedural thrillers, but this novel is totally different. It’s a standalone domestic noir thriller with so many twists and turns you will feel dizzy! Her storytelling is faultless but the storyboard is complex and scary. The characters she has envisaged and developed are eclectic and interesting, but some of them are truly mean, deceitful and totally amoral. There are criminal acts, deceitfulness, broken promises and lies aplenty. But to counteract these dark, wicked characters, I loved the story of two friends who were loyal and supportive, even though Dympna did have an axe to grind when the father of Roz’s baby is revealed. I sped through the novel, never knowing what was going to happen next. It was tense, misleading and thought provoking.
I received a complimentary copy of this novel from publisher Thomas & Mercer through my membership NetGalley and I would like to thank them for my copy, sent out to me in return for an honest review. I really enjoyed this novel and award it a well-deserved 4*.

How far would you go to give your baby a good home? And what would you do to bring a baby into your good home? The Perfect Mother answers both these questions. A tempting website, offering money and luxury accommodations in exchange for a newborn, intrigues young unwed mother Roz. Against the warnings of her best friend Dymphna, Roz travels from Ireland to New York to meet the mysterious couple who want to adopt her baby.

The couple are soon revealed to be Daniel Watson and Sheridan Sinclair, Angelina and Brad types, although his career is on the rise while hers has stalled. Here the story goes off the rails and devolves into a barely believable plot with a surprise ending that has little relation to the rest of the novel.

Still, I am giving The Perfect Mother four stars. What is lost in a disappointing plot is redeemed by strong character development. Roz and Dymphna’s friendship feels real. Roz’ developing love for her baby is touching and Dymphna’s concern for her friend rings true. These two women outshine the flawed storyline and will keep you captivated.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Amazon Publishing UK and Caroline Mitchell for this Advanced Reading Copy.

The Perfect Mother is the latest psychological thriller from Caroline Mitchell. It tells the story of Roz, young, broke and pregnant and how one decision changed her life…
anticipation and fear about what I was about to uncover in the pages ahead. Two women, Roz and Dympna, best friends but poles apart in terms of their background. Dympna comes from a stable and loving home while Roz’s background was at best chaotic and at its worse verging on abusive. When she discovers she is pregnant, Roz confesses to Dympna that she doesn’t think she is able to offer a baby the love and protection it needs. Her strict Catholic background means she cannot consider a termination and a dark secret she is keeping from her friend leaves her unable to face giving birth to the child in Ireland. And so comes her connection with Miracle Moms, a website which appears to offer Roz the very solution she is looking for.
The premise of this book was disturbing, babies for sale and the brutal truth that all that glitters is most definitely not always gold as Caroline Mitchell hammers the assumption that just because someone is rich or famous then they are good people.
The Perfect Mother lays bare the power and the ugly truth of the internet where anything is for sale. And when Roz decides to go through with her plan, things begin to spiral in a way that she could have never have imagined!
Sheridan and Daniel are the golden couple, a life of fame and luxury. But the narrative forces you to just look beneath that surface where you find something much darker, much more tarnished.
The novel is full of intriguing and well-rounded characters, Roz and Sheridan both stood out for me. My feelings for Sheridan batted back and forward between empathy, fear and hatred. And as I watched Roz beginning to doubt herself as events take a sinister turn, my heart was about to explode out of my chest! These characters were written so well, that despite the dark and sinister turn of events, it was impossible not to relate to each of them. I witnessed a vulnerability in each of the characters alongside an impressive display of strength and control. Cold hearted but fragile, watching these characters play out their role was like watching a car crash in slow motion.
The pace is perfect with each and every twist delivered just at the right time; it left me breathless but also probed away at my mind as I imagined myself in a similar situation…that old, what if scenario came into play many a time!
In a step away from police procedurals, Caroline Mitchell offers a well-drawn out, tension laden psychological thriller, it has all the elements required to make it a "just one more chapter" kind of read. Well drawn characters, a dark and intriguing and thrilling plot which was perfectly paced. It had all the twists and turns required to make me gasp! I really could see this play out on the big screen!

This review will appear on my blog as part of the blog tour in January.

I'm a big fan of Caroline Mitchell's books and I always look forward to a new one... I was sold soon as I first read the blurb for The Perfect Mother and I have been looking forward to read it ever since. And now I've had the chance to read it, I think I might just have found a new favorite title! From start to finish, this story is everything I look for and more in a psychological thriller. I was hooked from the very first page, unable to put down my kindle until I reached that final page, and I literally finished it in less than a day. This might sound like one of those review cliches or oneliners, but it is 200% true when it comes to The Perfect Mother!

There is a lot to love in The Perfect Mother, and I'm struggling a bit to decide where to start. The beginning maybe? The premise of the story is without doubt fascinating. We start with a young and broke Irish woman with an impossible dilemma as to how to solve her current situation. Some of her options might not be orthodox, but there are underlying secrets in play as well that will influence her decision. Conflicting opinions about her decision aside, it without doubt makes for one heck of a story. I'm not sure if I would have trusted the offer as it simply sounded too good to be true, but I guess being desperate makes you overlook the details... Once the story starts taking place in New York, things are getting truly interesting and I just couldn't believe my eyes when I started discovering what was really going on at the celebrity couple's house and what secrets they were hiding.

The story is told with the help of multiple POVs and two different settings (Ireland and New York). Focusing mainly on Roz and Sheridan, we slowly learn more about both their past and how the current situation came to be... Multiple plot twists and secrets are hidden along the way to keep you on your toes, and the plot will definitely have some surprises for you in store. The different POVs and settings also give this story a multidimentional feel and definitely enhanced both the plot and the suspense. The Irish setting was well described and really came alive for me; both through the characters and descriptions themselves. The New York setting mostly focuses on the celebrity couple's house, but those chapters are by no means dull and will definitely satisfy your need for suspense and shocking plot twists.

As for the characters... Even if you don't agree with what Roz decided to do, she is still quite easy to like and connect to. Her best friend is likewise easy to like and it was interesting to discover what role she played in the story as a whole. I wasn't a big fan of the celebrity couple, but I guess they are ment to be that way for the story to work and they are intriguing characters to try and decipher. Other New York characters were easier to like, including George, but the most important thing is that each character added a little something extra to the plot and played the role he/she had to play to turn The Perfect Mother into the little masterpiece it is. This book is definitely right at the top of favorite 2020 releases so far, and it is a story that will stay with me for quite some time... If you enjoy a well written, suspenseful and twisty psychological thriller, you should definitely add The Perfect Mother to your wishlist!

I have several of this authors books on my bookcase, most of which are from a series, so I was delighted to receive a copy of this book which is a stand alone novel.

Roz a 24 year old Catholic finds herself In dire straights, she has lost her job, is penniless and finds herself pregnant. She has a choice to make, keep the baby and try and raise it on her own, or give the baby up to a family that can give it all the things she can’t.

She decides to register with a website, that says it will find a good family and a decent home. Roz’s profile is matched with a celebrity couple, Julie and Greg. Roz believes this to be the perfect solution, and soon finds herself on a plane to NYC. However nothing is at is seems, as Julie and Greg have a dark secret.

Roz is afraid, she is stuck in a basement flat, and is being made to stick to a strict regime, no contact with her friends and family, is Roz in danger? she realises that she needs to escape from this couple, to save not just herself but her baby. The story is told by a number of points of view but mainly Sheridan and Roz who are the main focus of the story.

Although I enjoyed this, I did guess the plot twists, there are some well written characters, some I would have liked to a bit more of especially Dympna, Roz’s friend. My only other problem was that the ending just seemed rushed. However, this is just my opinion, others may disagree.

I would like to thank #netgalley and #Thomas&Mercer for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest, fair and unbiased review

This read was awesome, i read it twice! It was a read that got you in a net, a sad story of a young girl in a bit of a PICKLE! And oh my Lord it took a turn i never I never expected, not even if I’d have planned it myself .
Caroline Mitchell pulls these storylines from nowhere and never ceases to grab my guts and hold it tight till the book is done.. There are those who are meant to read and those who are meant to write ,we are an awesome combination :-).
The characters are fabulously rooted Jekyll and Hyde style the storylines that just jump out and suck at the main one are perfect its like a tree growing in Slow motion,its exciting, bold and in some parts quite terrifying because it can actually be believably true , this read makes you believe it could happen.

“Flops back” phew don’t miss this story another Caroline cracker Just in time for Christmas too.It Made my heard pop a cracker anyway. You wont be disappointed with the amazing labyrinth of twisted thoughts this takes you on.

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for an ARC of this book. It looked super interesting and had its good parts, but overall made for a read that just wasn't that great.
Read on to know why.

Genre: 
Thriller, Suspense

Length: 
368 pages

Overall Rating:
5 out of 10

Plot:
5 out of 10

Characterization:
3 out of 10

Primary Element:
6 out of 10 for its suspense

Writing Style:
7 out of 10

Part of a Series: 
No.

Highlighted Takeaway:
An endearing writing style, which is strongly representative of Irish slang and mannerisms.

What I Liked:
The Perfect Mother has an interesting basic premise. It reads smoothly, and moves fast enough. Unfortunately, these aren't enough to overshadow the negatives of the book.

What I Didn’t Like:
Characters were just too shallow and behaved in the most irrational ways possible. I know that tough situations can call for strange behaviors, but this was just too implausible. Also, the characters are not fleshed out. They act and do what the situation demands more than the story building around the characters and how they would actually react.
Another thing that really got to me was how convenient everything was in the story and the characters' reactions. It felt like the author had a very obvious predetermined arc and that everything and everyone played a role to fulfill it, consequently making the story too unrealistic to associate with or really enjoy.

Who Should Read It:
I would not actively recommend this book to anyone because if it's a suspense or thriller novel that you're looking for, there are definitely many other options out there that would do better.

Who Should Avoid:
Anyone who does not like shallow characters and a storyline based on convenient inputs rather than a fleshed-out book where story and characters build off of one another.

Read It For:
If anything, the endearing mannerisms and slang that the writing style offers.

I still think Caroline Mitchell's work could be good, if her writing style is anything to go by. I may or may not try another one of her books, but would have definitely loved to see her style combined with better characterization and story development. All in all, The Perfect Mother by Caroline Mitchell was not a great read, and not something I would actively recommend.

Where to begin? Alright, there's a Irish young woman, she's pregnant and wants to give away the baby. So she starts looking for couples and finds (a famous) one in the States. The couple flies her to New York and she signs away her life. Practically literally. It all seems great: good food, housing, money, etc, until things go bananas. Turns out the famous woman of the couple is bat-crap crazy and wants to pass of the baby as her own. She houses our heroine (or more like confines her) and as each day progress, she becomes crazier, more territorial, and even abusive.

To me, I could not wait to found out what was happening next. This is truly your typical thriller, page-turner. I was worried for Roz (our Irish lass) and also terrified of Sheridan (our lady of the house). And let's not forget the baby. WHAT HAPPENS WITH THE BABY? Well, I guess to find out, you'll have to read.

Get The Perfect Mother when it comes out 1.14.2020.

5/5 Stars

#ThePerfectMother #NetGalley
A good psychological thriller.
Roz is young, penniless and pregnant. All she wants is to be the perfect mother to her child, but the more she thinks about her own chaotic upbringing, the more certain she is that the best life for her baby is as far away as possible from her hometown in Ireland.
Determined to do the right thing, Roz joins an elite adoption service and can’t believe her luck. Within days she is jetting to New York to meet a celebrity power couple desperate for a child of their own. Sheridan and Daniel are wealthy and glamorous—everything Roz isn’t. Her baby will never go hungry, and will have every opportunity for the perfect life. But soon after Roz moves into their plush basement suite, she starts to suspect that something darker lurks beneath the glossy surface of their home.
But soon her dream becomes a nightmare for her. Read this book to know more.
Each character has given equal importance in the book. All are superb.
Narration is simple.
Thanks to NetGalley and Thomas and Mercer for giving me an advance copy of this book.

Roz a penniless Irish girl suddenly pregnant
Sheridan, half of a Hollywood power couple, unable to have children and desperate to
Neither of them are a ‘perfect mother’ and neither of them would ever meet normally
But this is book world and they do via an anon ‘you have your baby, we keep it, heres a zillion dollars’ kind of web site

So, Roz goes over to NY and it all seems perfect, her life is going to be wonderful, money, clothes, the finest Dr’s.....all seems too good to be true, and, of course it is as she soon realises as she is led into her luxury quarters....in a windowless basement with only a lift for access

The story then takes off and Sheridan is a fab narcissistic psychopath character hideous yet fascinating, Roz a petrified kidnapee and no one knows she is there...

It’s a full on psychological story that was good, true its full of ‘well hang on if she had done this then she would be free’ and ‘ WOW how daft can you be to fall for that’ but then some of the best stories ( and films ) are like this and thats half what makes them so enjoyable

There’s the obligatory twists but then quite a raised eyebrow one at the end that was a shock

Its well written, exciting, fun even though at times horrifying and a book I can say am glad have read

Predicable at times maybe but then thats why we read the genres we do, we enjoy them

8/10
4 Stars

Caroline Mitchell is quickly becoming one of my favorite To-Read authors. The Perfect Mother is a stand alone psychological thriller and it is fabulous! The beginning grabs hold and the tension builds increasingly all the way to the end. It is realistically written and one could imagine this happening - now that is scary!

This is a gripping, fast-paced book that focuses on the naive, pregnant Roz who believes all her prayers are answered when a Hollywood couple offer to pay to adopt her unborn baby and care for her during her pregnancy. However, the adage that "if it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is" means that Roz begins to regret her lack of suspicion and wishes that she had been as cynical as her friend Dymphna was about the situation.
There are some thoroughly enjoyable twists and turns in this book; the pressure of being a Hollywood power couple, the attitude towards 'ageing' women actors, the abuse of child stars and the corruptive influence of having power. However, the characterisation was disappointing. Sheridan was alternatively portrayed as an archvillain (I could almost imagine her 'mwa ha ha ing' as she led Roz to the basement) or as a victim in the mother-daughter and husband-wife relationships. Mike was straight out of the 'washed-up actor gone bad' school and even Roz was dimensional.
That being said, it is a fun, quick read, and kept me turning the pages.

My thanks go to the publishers and Net Galley for the advanced copy in return for an honest review.

When I first started reading this, I was super excited because I loveeee thrillers. This one just wasn't for me. I'm not a fan of thrillers following cop/court proceedings and this one felt a lot like those. My rating seemed to fluctuate as I read the book and it was difficult to come to a decision on a star rating. I did enjoy the writing, but the plot was not for me.

I love Caroline's police procedurals and was excited to see a different style of book.
The characters bring out all of your emotions, pity, disgust, antipathy and amazement.
It has a few twists in the book, some I was expecting and some that were a shock.

Ideal for people who love domestic noir.

This book was very good
It was refreshing and it was very well to explain things
I thought it was very thoroughly
I received an ARC

This was coasting for all the stars until something was revealed at the end that just didn't work for me. Yes, OK, it did explain something so could, at a push, be an integral plot point, but it also could have been different and still work. To me it came across a bit being added for shock tactic rather than wholly necessary and took the shine off the ending for me somewhat.
When we first meet Roz she is not having a great life. A bit on her uppers already she now finds out that she is pregnant and not in a steady relationship. Studying her options and discounting some straight away, she signs up to an online elite adoption agency, determined to give her baby the best start in life; something she feels she is unable to do herself. Meanwhile, across the pond, a celebrity A-list couple are desperate to adopt and, long story short, Roz soon finds herself jetting off to NY to continue her pregnancy with her baby's soon to be new parents, to be pampered and looked after every step of the way. Knowing that her baby will have the life it deserves, the one she didn't get. But it soon transpires that her version of "looked after" wildly differs from that of the couple who reveal themselves after the paperwork has been completed. Celebrity couple Sheridan and Daniel want to complete their family; they already have a son. But what lengths will they go to to achieve this goal?
Imagine this, a celebrity couple wants to adopt your child and promises you the world. Sounds a little too good to be true, doesn't it? Especially when you agree to meet them without knowing who they are, travelling across the pond, alone, pregnant, vulnerable... Meeting with PA and lawyers all before knowing who the couple are. What could possibly go wrong...!?
And so begins a rather harrowing tale, full of twists, turns, shocks and thrills that had me on the edge of my seat throughout. Yes, it was a bit predictable along the way and has the one reveal too far at the end, but it was entertaining nonetheless.
Characterisation was, on the whole, good. There's quite a lot going on in the book and not all is what it appears on face value, not a spoiler, it's part of the genre, so the characters have to be good to pull it all together and they do this very well. To be honest, I didn't really like Roz, for reasons I couldn't put my finger on for most of the book and I thought she was so naive and silly doing what she did and wanted to slap her up something rotten at times for what she was doing. On the flip side, I loved her friend Dympna. Sheridan was barking and Daniel was just weird (and not fully developed in my opinion) and, when they were introduced the whole things degenerated into a bit of a farce with unrealistic undertones.
If you want your reads to be realistic and credible then this may not be the book for you. If you are looking for a thrill a minute, suspenseful, shocker of a tale, and are not too fussed about reality then this will hit the spot for you. My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

This book was seriously good. I liked how we followed different viewpoints while keeping Roz the main focus of the book.
As a mom it was kinda hard to see read some parts that involved the baby, but it just made me root for Roz even harder.
Daniel's character was done in such a way that he literally made my skin crawl.
Sheridan was a complex character for me. At first I despised her but as I kept reading and more things kept being revealed about her, i did start to pity her. Still a horrible character however.

Overall i did enjoy this book and it was a pretty fast read.
I knocked off a star because the ending felt a tad bit unbelievable and also the beginning had me just like huh?? In regards to some of the decisions Roz made and how fast and reckless she made them.

Also, i guessed one of the big twists super early on in the novel, but i dont know if that's just me or if it was an east plot twist to guess. Either way, i didnt knock off a star for that.




* I recieved this arc completely free from NetGalley in echange for an honest review*

I enjoyed The Perfect Mother by Caroline Mitchell very much. It kept me engaged and on my toes from beginning to end. I liked the premise of a young girl, pregnant and desperate to make a better life for her child and the choices she makes.

This book took me in a direction I did not anticipate and I LOVED IT. It’s very suspenseful and disturbing so maybe don’t read it on a dark and stormy night because it has the potential to give you nightmares!

Roz is young, penniless and pregnant. All she wants is to be the perfect mother to her child, but the more she thinks about her own chaotic upbringing, the more certain she is that the best life for her baby is as far away as possible from her hometown in Ireland.

Determined to do the right thing, Roz joins an elite adoption service and can’t believe her luck. Within days she is jetting to New York to meet a celebrity power couple desperate for a child of their own. Sheridan and Daniel are wealthy and glamorous—everything Roz isn’t. Her baby will never go hungry, and will have every opportunity for the perfect life. But soon after Roz moves into their plush basement suite, she starts to suspect that something darker lurks beneath the glossy surface of their home.

When Roz discovers she isn’t the first person to move in with the couple, and that the previous woman has never been seen since, alarm bells start ringing. As the clock ticks down to her due date, Roz realises her unborn baby may be the only thing keeping her alive, and that despite her best intentions, she has walked them both into the perfect nightmare…

I will definitely be looking for this author’s name in the future, I am eager to see what kind of twisted and creepy story she writes next!

Due out on January 14, buy it here! Free for those with Kindle Unlimited.

I am a big fan of Caroline Mitchell and read several of her books. When I heard about The Perfect mother different to her other books, I was intrigued to read this and find out what it is all about.
Roz Foley struggles to make ends meets and lives with her friend Dympna in Ireland. When after a one-night stand, she discovers that she is pregnant, and she doesn’t know what to do, she is also a Catholic so she is against abortion and she can’t tell her friend who the father is, or it will blow their friendship apart.
After her own childhood without a dad and her mother an alcoholic, Roz wants to do the best for the child and when she comes across an adoption website that sells baby’s to the rich and famous she thinks that is the best solution for her baby. Give her baby the life that she will not possibly give her child. She decides on a ‘diamond’ couple. Who pays her all expenses paid to America, New York and up to when the baby is born?
When she gets there, she is so excited and at first can’t believe her luck when she thinks she has found the perfect couple for her baby. But when she arrives its not what she is expecting. She is hidden in the basement out of sight, away from prying eyes.
This is another gripping thriller from Caroline Mitchell that I didn’t want to put down. This had a great characters and story and emotional too. How desperate and what sacrifices a mother must make to give the best for her child? This is a very entertaining read. I highly recommend