Really enjoyed this book. It’s based on your own doubts and the way that you can take one thing one way and turn it into a spiral or circle or doubt which is the best way to describe this book.

A disclosure in the first chapter and I was convinced I knew where this was going. Nope, not even close.  This story was a plethora of strained situations: family dynamics, a 10 year old that was a little too sweet and understanding, neighborhood gossips (and how easily THOSE heads were turned), revenge, mental health, marriage issues, maternal love……..it had it all. The big “aha” moment in the book was then followed by another one making for a real page turner. My only letdown was that I felt the final chapter was wrapped up too tightly with a bow for all the excitement that preceded it.

In the first chapter I though, Oh No!, and then I went along and enjoyed this intense journey. I was definitely pulled into the story immediately. This is the second book in the Forest Grove series taking place in a “picture perfect” village. Of course everything is not what it seems, and that is true in this community.

Full of tension and doubt, this is a fantastic getaway from normal life. The author talks about writing this book during the Covid pandemic. I read it while the world is still in the pandemic and it definitely took my mind off what the world is facing. I was focused on the Forest Grove village and what would be the outcome of the situation occurring there. I think the author did an amazing job creating this plot. The characters were believable and flawed, which makes them real to me.

I read the first book, Wall of Silence, in this series and do think it is good to have the background knowledge of the village before reading Circle of Doubt, but each book can be read independently and enjoyed fully. In addition, I want to add that I love the book cover!

I want to thank NetGalley and Amazon Publishing UK, Lake Union Publishing for giving me the pleasure of reading the advance reader copy, with no obligation to write a review. My review is done freely as a hobby, and is totally my own opinion, not influenced by receiving the ARC.

Already feeling like a bit of an outsider in her own community of Forest Grove, Emma begins to doubt herself more with the arrival of glamorous Tatjana and her family. And even though it would be nearly impossible, she can't help thinking how much Tatjana looks like Emma's own adopted daughter, Isla, who she saved from a terrible home life as a young child. Emma's husband, Dele, thinks it's just her self-consciousness causing her to make this comparison, but the more she gets to know Tatjana, the more she can't stop thinking about it.

Why else would Tatjana gives Isla so much extra attention? And all those subtle shots she takes at Emma - making her seem like an uncapable, forgetful mother who works too much. Emma knows she's not imagining that! And of course the gossipy school mom clique fawned over Tatjana from the get-go and take any opportunity they can to make Emma feel inferior. Could Tatjana be setting the stage to move in and take Emma's place as Isla's true mother? Emma's determined to dig into Tatjana's past, if only to alleviate her concerns and settle the matter once and for all. At least, that was the plan...

Just when you think that you know where the story is going, it takes a turn you won't see coming. I knew it couldn't be as straightforward as it seemed, and I wasn't disappointed! The seemingly idyllic community of Forest Grove holds many secrets and you'll find yourself racing through the pages trying to uncover each one.

Thought this started off slow and was repetitive. But as I got further into the book it had more oomph to it. Ended up having a great twist I didnt see coming. Overall was a good book.

Thanks to the Author, the publisher and NetGalley for an early release of this book.

May contain spoilers: Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book as an ARC in return for a honest review. I really enjoyed this book! The book follows Emma and Dele who are a married couple with an adopted daughter. They have moved to a new neighborhood and seem to be doing well until they get new neighbors who seem to be too interested in their daughter. Emma starts to believe that the new neighbor is actually the biological mother of her child. She becomes paranoid and as time goes on has good reason to believe something is array. When the truth came out on who was actually the one gaslighting Emma it was a surprise! In addition, Emma also has a secret that she has tried for many years to hide. It was a quick read and enjoyable. I would recommend.

Wow, this is one review that is hard to write. I really wanted to love this book as the plot line is right up my alley and I LOVE the cover too. I am sorry to say this just didn't do it for me. I found myself getting bored by the same thing happening over and over again. We have a female protagonist who is fooled by the most obvious things and seems more concerned with being popular than the safety of her daughter.

The book started out strong and then quickly falls into mediocrity, nothing happened for a long time and the petty infighting, of the school moms, on FaceBook got on my nerves quite quickly...it was becoming absurd. Do women really treat each other that way nowadays? I thought mothers were worried about bullying? I didn't connect with any of the characters, so didn't really care what happened to them except for ten year old Isla, she was so precocious...LOVED her!

This was a very short read at 209 pages as a .PDF so it was easy to get through at least. I have now had three books in a row that were pretty bad so maybe it is me and not the book. I seem to be in the minority of reviewers, so please take my review with a grain of salt. You may enjoy this book, as did many other readers.

Set in the fictional town of Forest Grove, the story centers on Dele and Emma Okoru, the adoptive parents of ten-year old daughter, Isla. As Emma struggles with insecurities about her personality and mothering abilities, especially as the white mother of a mixed race daughter, these are intensified when the rich, glamorous new couple, architect Lawrence and fashion designer Tatjana Belafonte, move to the village. Emma is quick to notice that Tatjana, who is black, looks like a matured version of Jade Dixon, the seventeen year old, heroin-addicted girl who gave birth to Isla. When Tatjana takes a particularly keen interest in Isla and mysterious events start happening that call into question Emma’s character and mothering skills, Emma is firmly convinced that Tatjana is actually Jade returned to take Isla away from her.

The story is told in a dual narrative. In one there’s the unreliable narrator Emma, who is sharing the daily unfolding of events, as she struggles to fit into the mean girl, catty mom culture of Forest Grove, where her every action is handled by the judge and jury panel of ladies who are members of the Mums of Forest Grove Facebook Group, which Emma doesn’t belong to. We also find out she has a hidden, mysterious past that she fears could threaten her custody of Isla, were it to come to light. In the other narrative, we have a series of inner monologue style “letters” to Isla, where someone clearly intent on getting Isla back unfolds their plan, while disparaging Isla’s “fake” parents. Each effort to undermine Emma is explained in a birds-eye view by this person, creating the unsettling feeling of how far they might go to get what they want, as the story shows them upping the ante with each new action against her.

The story does an excellent job of creating the dynamic tension between characters and displaying the fickle allegiances of various members of the community, especially the ladies. Those women are simultaneously awful and awesome. It was well-paced, suspenseful, and the main characters, at least, felt fully formed. The plot was intriguing, and the story did a great job of showing Emma’s isolation in her increasing desperation to prove her theory to her loving, but skeptical husband and others, that Tatjana really is Jade and that she really is plotting against her. There were two fantastic twists that I didn’t see coming at all - and both really elevated the story for me.

One minor issue that was mildly irritating is Buchanan’s borderline comical overuse of exclamation points. Really - the majority of them weren’t necessary and gave the writing a more amateurish feel than it should have had. Oh … and this particular gem of writing:

“The large window looking towards the garden was smashed, glass shattered on the carpet, the blinds covering the window tangled and broken. Lying among the glass was a boulder from the rockery outside.

Somebody must have thrown it through the window!”

Barring a rock sprouting wings, I’m fairly certain that could have been deduced without need of telling me, but hey … to each their own.

All in all, I had a lot of fun with this one and enjoyed it thoroughly!

★★★★

Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review. #CircleofDoubt #NetGalley

Thank you NetGalley for this advanced copy. Great book! I don't think I have read Tracy before but this was a great start. Man did I think i had it figured out until the loop she threw at the end. Great characters. Great suspense. I also enjoyed the different formats/voices coming out. Highly recommended!

Took me a little while to get into the story line but it was an excellent, well written thriller which did keep me interested once I had got into it.

The characters were good although for me, personally, it wasn't an edge of seat read but I can recommend this book.

Thank you to Netgalley and Amazon Publishing for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

“Circle of Doubt” by Tracy Buchanan is a tightly woven family suspense. I really liked the characters and how they all interlocked with one another into the story.
Red herrings are thrown in to put the reader off the scent and it’s not clear who can be trusted until the moment it’s revealed!
This is the first book by this author that I’ve read and I’m looking forward to reading more by her. A great, fast paced, highly enjoyable read.

i really enjoyed this book, it had a great mystery and the characters were really interesting. I enjoyed trying to figure out what was going on. I look forward to more from the author.

Emma and Dele felt like they had created the perfect family when they adopted Isla. It’s not until several years later when they get new neighbors and Emma is creeped out by the fact that the wife is a dead ringer for Isla’s birth mother. She manages to convince herself that she’s overreacting, but as time goes by, it looks like Emma’s first assumptions may just be right. When dark secrets from Emma’s own past begin to surface, she wonders if she’s losing Isla, or her mind

Circle of Doubt, by Tracy Buchanan, was an enjoyable read. The storyline was fascinating, the characters were well developed, and the entire read I was entertained. The plot doesn’t have as many twists & turns as I like, but I’d still recommend this book.

📖Book Review 📖
Circle of Doubt - @tracybuchananauthor
Publication date 5th January 2021.

Thank you to @amazonpublishing and @netgalley for the Advanced Readers Copy.

Amazing book!! This had me hooked from the start!! And thanks to not being able to sleep, I finished this in a few hours.

Such an interesting storyline and I think everyone can relate to some of the characters as we’ve all come across bitchy women 😂.

This was a fast paced read and I raced through the end to see what happened.

I would highly recommend this book.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced e-copy of Circle of Doubt by Tracy Buchanan!!!

Emma and Dele are busy raising their adoptive daughter Isla when a new family moved in and the mother looks like Isla’s birth mother. Small things start to happen to make it look like Emma is not a fit mother and she begins to wonder if the birth mother lookalike is trying to steal back her daughter.

This is the first book I have read by Tracey Buchanan and I really like it!! The action starts taking pace almost immediately and never stops. Once you figure out what is happening, there are still more surprises to come and this book keeps you guessing until the very end.

This is the second Tracy Buchanan book for me. While I do believe the first (Wall of Silence??) was a better book, this is still a good one. It touches on topics such as adoption, wild youths & abusive spouses while still being a solid suspense novel. And even after the “who” of the “whodunit” (or “who’s doing it, in this instance) is revealed, there are still more surprises to come. I’ll be looking for Ms Buchanan’s next one😊

Having read Wall of Silence with enjoyment, I was looking forward to this read.
Emma and Dele adopted Isla when she was a baby and have moved to Forest Grove, where Emma is having a hard time fitting in with the Yummy Mummies. She's shy and has no friends yet but being a mum to Isla is the thing that keeps her going...she loves her more than life itself.
A new family has moved in and the woman looks so much like Isla, that Emma wonders if she could be the birthmother. Nasty incidents start to occur as things get worse and worse for Emma; what on earth is going on?
I was a bit disappointed, it wasn't as good as the previous book, but still a pleasant, although forgettable, read.
Thank you NetGalley and Amazon Publishing UK for the eARC.

#CircleOfDoubt #NetGalley
An excellent thriller.
Emma and Dele’s dreams came true nine years ago when they adopted their daughter, Isla. It felt like fate, like they were meant to find each other, and now they’re living the life they always wanted. But then one day a new family moves into Forest Grove—and Emma can’t shake the chilling feeling that the wife looks just like Isla’s birth mother.
Emma tells herself that this sophisticated stranger can’t possibly be the troubled woman she remembers from the adoption. But as they get to know each other and it becomes clear that Tatjana has a special interest in Isla, her suspicions grow.
When small things start to go wrong and her parenting abilities are brought into question, Emma feels undermined, turning to her sister Harriet for support. But things only spiral further when secrets from her past suddenly resurface.
Characters and narration were good.
Thanks to NetGalley and Amazon Publishing UK for giving me an advanced copy.