This is so emotional and had me captivated
Its is a heartwarming story that tugged at my heartstrings
The story flows so well.
A great book

Another domestic thriller/ drama from Jo crow which shows what can lurk behind the most perfect of relationships. Thanks for the opportunity to read

I love when you don’t see the twists coming in a thriller and this was one of those books, this kept me gripped and intrigued from the start.

This is one book where I truly did not see the twists and turns coming and the book left me surprised and breathless

I want to thank Netgalley and the author for gifting me the ebook. Interesting plot if you like Thriller/Suspense..

Great book. Highly recommend and will most defiantly read more by this author and suggest to others!

I did enjoy this book. However, upon requesting this book I didn't realise it was book 7 within a series. I did feel like I was without a lot of the back story and I will read this book again when I have read the previous 6
What I read, I really did enjoy and it has encourage me to read more by the author

I really enjoyed reading this book, it was a well done mystery and the cover is what drew me in. I didn't see the twists coming. Really well done.

I'm afraid the style of this novel did not capture my attention, and the simplification of a mental health issue to a crazy woman did not appeal. So I gave up.

I didn't like the book. How can the author portray mental illness in such a way.... looks like the author has not even bothered to do some research....... HIGHLY DISAPPOINTING

Wowza, what a read! Very dark and twisted, lots of thrilling, fast paced, chilling pages! One that will hook you from page one and not let you go until the very end! Highly, highly recommend!

This book pulled me right in from the beginning, it pulled me out of my reading slump. This book kept me wanting more.

Mothers Don't Lie is the seventh in the 'Secrets of Suburbia' thriller series by Jo Crow. Having missed the first two books in the series, I read the third, The Perfect Neighbourhood, and the fourth, A Mother's Loss, and I was happy to jump in and read this instalment. The story makes a good standalone novel as each is an individual tale set in Chicago.

Molly Burke is happy with her life. She has a young son, Colin, her husband, Bryan and a good job as an estate agent. But she doesn't get on well with Bryan's parents, father-in-law Frank, and mother-in-law Kathy. Molly and her foster sister, Carol grew up in a foster home, and Molly has had problems moving on from some of the trauma she experienced. To get by she protects her family by concealing her worst times with little white lies. When Molly’s son, Colin, is discovered injured, covered in his grandfather’s blood, Frank disappears.

This novel was a fantastic, compulsive and solid domestic thriller and although Molly was quite difficult to warm to, I accepted this was down to her immensely troubled past. It was well-balanced and had me glued to the pages and I didn't want to put it down as I was desperate to know the outcome of the story. The plot was cleverly written being gripping and suspenseful but not unbelievable or far-fetched. Each character had a defined role to play and all of the time the tension was being ratcheted up a notch as Jo Crow hit me with some captivating misdirection. The writing flowed effortlessly with a swift pace to it as Mothers Don't Lie delved into topics of mental health, paranoia, and feelings of inadequacy with doses of deception, menace, and lies.

A brilliant, edge-of-your-seat and highly recommended psychological thriller laced with uncertainty.

I received a complimentary copy of this novel at my request from Relay Publishing via NetGalley. This review is my own unbiased opinion.

This is a true "what is going on?" book. Captivated me from the first page and I was on this twisty, messed up ride to the end. Thankful to NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this title.

Mother's don't lie is a fascinating psychological thriller focusing around Molly. Molly has a secret that only her sister knows, so when that secret comes back to haunt her she begins to think she's loosing her mind. With Mollys mental health history it is clear to those around her what is happening but Molly is convinced there's a link between her father in laws disappearance and everything thats happening, but would you believe someone who is a known compulsive liar?

I am going to first start with the one element of the novel i didn't like. I am aware mental illness plays a very big role in this story and I am fine with that however Molly has a diagnosis of boarferline personality dosorder. BPD sufferers have been stigmatised as manipulative and liars for years and this isn't the case. I wish that the author had picked another disorder to go along side the compulsive lying diagnosis because this story reinforces alot of the negative stereotypes. As someone with bpd this really made me angry reading so I had to put that feeling to one side to enjoy the book.

I loved the fact that we only know what Molly tells us. So we are kept in the dark about majority of the ongoing and have o question ourselves whether or not we believe what she is saying. I found myself flip flopping throughout the novel. I think the psychological element of this book was written extremely well to the point at times I questioned what I even knew.

Mollys relationship with her husband Bryan seems so perfect. He's a great father and husband. It was interesting watching how this played out the more Molly's mind started to unrevell. Molly's relationship with her son is so special. She will protect that kid over anything and everything. I found some elements of the end a tad implusable given how protective she is however when worse comes to the worse you got to do whatever you can.

The flashback elements as nightmares were very well written. I loved that we weren't jumping from one time zone to the next as sometimes I get lost with that. I also like that although we get the just of what happened to Jack we don't really know the exact details until the end and I enjoyed that.

The epilogue was great I thought it would go one way hut it ended leaving doubt in the readers mind and I loved that now I want to read a second book to get to the truth.


I would highly recommend this book to anyone who likes a thinker. I often wonder if my mind is a bit messed up as I guessed early on the twist and thought nope ridiculous and I was bang on again, it's a great twist and if you don't guess it you are in for a treat! Like I said the BPD element i found a tad offensive as it wasn't explain clearly and it reads as if that causes compulsive lying. However the rest of the story makes up for that and I am happily giving 5 stars. Fantastic psychological thriller has me kn the edge of my seat and managed to finish within a day I was that hooked!


Thank you to netgalley, the author and publisher for the advanced digital copy in exchange for my fair and honest opinion

First of all: Mental illnesses. Are. Not. A. Plotdevice! Second of all, if you have the need to put a mental illness into a book, do your goddamn research! Don't end up confusing Borderline Personality Disorder with Bipolar Personality Disorder!
A lot of other reviwers of this book did and honestly, I can understand why. That is honestly one of the worst description of BDP I've ever seen - and yes, I am counting the ones in which people with BPD are portrayed as absolute psychopaths. Before I am now kicking loose a shitstorm of "How dare I to think I know what the author is talking about" - joke's on you, this time, I actually DO know what I am talking about. See, I HAVE Borderline. And I am SICK of the way this - and, for the record, many other mental illnesses - are portrayed in the media, be it television or books.
Let's make a quick check of what the nine criterica for BPD are (also, keep in mind, to be diagnosed with BPD, you need to have at least five of these criteria!):
1) Frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment. -> I am actually giving the author this one, because Molly's behaviour toward Colin is exactly that. From the very beginning.
2) A pattern of unstable and intense interpersonal relationships characterised by alternating
between extremes of idealisation and devaluation -> Uhm... Well, no?! Not once in that book did I see anything remotely to that behaviour. Molly is married, she is on good terms with her foster sister, she doesn't have a love-hate relationship with her in-laws; it's actually pure dislike on both sides, mainly on her mother-in-law's side.
3) Identity disturbance: markedly and persistently unstable self-image or sense of self -> Also no. Molly knows exactly who she is and the amnesia she's seemingly having does not exactly fall under that criteria. She knows how to do her job and she's not bad at it. She knows what she wants from her life. Doesn't sound "identity disturbance" to me.
4) Impulsivity in at least two areas that are potentially self-damaging -> Nope. Where? She's not speeding, she's not engaging in risky behaviour, she's not spending money, she's not having reckless sex. She is not abusing her medication, she's taking them accuratly.
5) Recurrent suicidal behaviour, gestures, or threats, or self-mutilating behaviour -> Also nothing. Absolutely NOTHING. The only thing that "might" count as self-mutilating behaviour was eating the cake, but guess what? She said she was allergic to walnut and she did not know there was walnut in it! If she had known, she would not have said so!
6) Affective instability due to a marked reactivity of mood -> LIGHTLY- very, very lightly, and if you don't know what to look for, it's easy to miss.
7) Chronic feelings of emptiness -> in no way resembeling toward BPD. Her son was attacked, her father-in-law is missing and her "loving" husband is telling her that she is acting crazy. There is no emptiness behind any of Molly's actions or description.
8) Inappropriate, intense anger or difficulty controlling anger -> I am giving half a point here, because I wouldn't say that her anger is compleatly inappropriate. Her husband is trying to take her son away from her, that is a more than plausible reason for anyone to get angry. Also, you don't really see Molly angry, at least not when it's not appropriate.
9) Transient, stress-related paranoid ideation or severe dissociative symptoms -> That is probaly the point Jo Crow decided to use to justify Molly's BPD. I am also willing to give her that one, but again, even if you don't have BPD, I am pretty sure if your child was attacked, you'd start to feel slightly paranoid.

So, what does this list tell us now? Molly does NOT fullfill the criteria for BPD.. And Compulsive Lying is NOT a criteria of BPD, as you can see.
Also, can we please mention how WEIRD this book got near the end?! How can you be married to someone without knowing their middle name? As far as I know, that stuff need to put down when you get married., so... shouldn't Molly have gotten suspicious then? Jeez, no! This book was such a waste of time...

I received a free copy by netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Molly suffers from BPD and when her father in law mysteriously vanishes she feels herself losing her grip on reality and starting to question who she can trust. Having run away with the baby she had agreed to give to surrogate parents, she fears the past is somehow catching up with her, but can’t work out how it all ties together.

I enjoyed this book - it was well-written and engaging although, in my opinion, overall a little far fetched. It kept me turning the pages though, and I liked the final twist on the very last page - it was more satisfying (and realistic!) than having a completely open and shut ‘goodie’ and ‘baddie’.

This is the first time I’d heard of the author and must admit I thought it was a debut novel. Overall though a solid read and a very original idea.

Thank you NetGalley for a kindle copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is the first novel I have read by Jo Crow and I can tell you right now, it most certainly will not be my last! I was hooked from the very beginning and thoroughly enjoyed each and every twist of this thrilling journey, desperate to get to the end.

This is a story of a mother’s fear of losing her child, of betrayal, uncertainty and mental illness. I feel Jo wrote about the aspects of borderline personality disorder beautifully, delicately and respectfully. The writing style was easy to read with wonderful character development throughout. At points I really did feel I was there with Molly, the main character, feeling her sorrow, despair and utter confusion - sometimes I wanted to comfort her, other times I didn’t like her, sometimes I believed her, other times I doubted her - a testament to Jo’s incredible writing.

A brilliantly written and suspenseful thriller, utterly gripping. I would thoroughly recommend. Absolutely read it. Right now!!

Well Jo Crow has done it again another great book!! This is a book you will be so engrossed with you won't be able to put it down to do your everyday stuff. Highly recommend

3.5 stars rounded up
Grabbed me initially and held my interest. I did figure out one significant part early on but it didn't ruin the story. The characters are well developed, however, I'm on the fence about Molly.