Mother May I is the first I have read from Joshilyn Jackson and I thoroughly enjoyed every word.
It captured my interest from the beginning and held it through out the story.
Bree Cabbat grew up in rural Georgia with a mother who warned her of the dark and evil in the world but Bree did not believe her mother. Until her son Robert was taken at the campus of her daughters school. She woke the night before to a witch staring in her window and after speaking to her husband Trey about it, they ended up shaking it off. In hindsight her husband wishes he would have listened to her and stopped the old lady then. What happens next goes against everything Bree believes and she does what she has to to save her son.
Thank you to William Morrow publishing and NetGalley for advanced wonderful listen.

I really enjoyed this audiobook. The narration was excellent and the storyline kept me wanting more. It was suspenseful until the very end. It was a story of revenge, privilege, lies and torment. It was executed really well. I highly recommend checking this one out!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing a free advanced copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

Bree Cabbatt will do anything to get her baby back.

Bree's son Robert is kidnapped while she watches her older daughter rehearse for her school play. This is hours after she woke up in bed thinking she saw a witch outside her window and minutes after seeing a woman who resembled the witch walking by the school. Is it all connected? All she knows is that a note was left on the floor where the car seat had been, and the note tells her to head home for further instructions.

Bree wants to follow all the instructions so she can get Robert back. She lies to those around her so that she can be alone and she doesn't tell her husband who is out of town. She is instructed to complete a task that she is uncomfortable with but she does it. The result is not what she was told to expect and she is drawn further into this tragedy. A friend of the family who happens to be an investigator and former policeman, knows something is off and ends up helping Bree figure out why her son was taken.

The mystery/thriller part of the book, which is most of the book, is quite compelling. The end of the book gets wrapped up in upper class privilege and the change in Bree's attitude toward her husband was so quickly brought on, I had a hard time accepting it.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy.

I dove into listening to Mother May I with no expectations at all and was pleasantly surprised.

I think this book would make an excellent choice for a book club with a strong preference for thrillers. It is one of these rear thrillers with more meaningful content than most.

Are you a mother? Then tell me, what would happen if your baby was taken? Is there anything you would not do to get him/her back? Do you think there is some sort of moral line that you would not cross, or would absolutely nothing stop you?

Because that’s exactly what happened to the main protagonist, Bree Cabbat. One minute her newborn son was safely tucked away in his car seat, right by her side, while Bree was watching her older daughter’s rehearsal at her posh private school, and the next…he was gone, gOnE, GONE! And now a mysterious old lady is giving Bree instructions which she must follow to the tee if she ever to see her baby again.

Mother May I has a pacing and a haunting atmosphere of a thriller, but it focuses on MANY uncomfortable and rather complex topics. The main and most important one being white male privilege. Is there such a thing as a good guy that has done only one bad thing in his life, EVER? How forgiving should we (or should we not be?) when we learn these things about our friends and loved ones? How about the fact that one good ol’ boy’s “mistake” could have been some girl’s end of life as she knew it? Should we forgive such mistakes, and move forward for the sake of our children? How do we as a society treat rich white boy’s experimenting with sex and drugs in college? And how do we react to the same behavior when it is exhibited by the underprivileged girl? The book also brushes on topics such as consent, being a black woman in a predominantly white workspace, sexual harassment at work, class disparity in the South, domestic violence, the moral obligation to be honest with our kids about hard topics, and even (albeit very briskly) on the topic of bringing your firearm to a public place and using it in the case of mass shootings (or what appears to be a mass shooting).

4 starts and not 5, because for me, personally, the book landed a bit too hard on the "happy(ish) ending". It is hard to discuss thrillers without accidently dropping spoilers but let’s just say I found it a bit too unrealistic that no one found out how Bree’s husband’s friend really died. Knowing how there are cameras everywhere nowadays and all. And also, I am critical of some of the choices that Bree (and Marshall) made at the very end. But that’s just my opinion, and that is exactly why I think this would be a great book for a book club discussion: I think some of these questions are HARD, and that it is easy to be all righteous when your own kids are not involved. But…the ending left me feeling like there STILL was no justice for Lexi. And it broke my heart.

Mother May I is narrated by the author, and boy was I impressed. I never listened to a thriller read by the author before! Joshilyn Jackson is an impressive narrator and it was a joy to listen to her bring her novel to life with the masterful use of different “voices”. Her performance of the wide range of Southern accents (all very nuanced) is very impressive!

I will say that I do NOT recommend this book if you just had a baby. No. NOPE. It is guaranteed to freak you the ef out…. Just don’t do it. Wait a bit. Until they are like 5. Or may be 18 ….

Joshilyn Jackson has become one of my favorite authors over the last few years, and she seems to get better with every book. She excels in writing these domestic thrillers, that will make those fine hairs raise as you read and/or listen to her stories.

When this book opens, Bree, our protagonist, wakes up thinking she sees a witch in her bedroom window. After thinking about it, she thinks it was just something crazy and it couldn’t possibly be real. She wakes to care for her newborn son and two pre-teen daughters while her husband packs for a business trip. Later in the day, she sees the same woman in the parking lot of her daughters school and not long after her baby goes missing.

This sets up the narrative of this story and puts Bree on a crash course that will forever change her and her family’s lives. Lies, innuendos, secrets are all part of this story and makes this book so compulsive to read. Jackson is masterful at giving just enough information to pull you in and and then takes you on so many twists and turns that even until the last page you will not have the full picture of what the end result will be.

This a fun read, though I think this will scare any new parent, so be aware. Have fun with this one and savor Jackson’s writing. If this is your first time reading her, make sure to go back to her backlist, there is so much goodness there.

Thank you NetGalley and HarperAudio for an Advanced Reader’s Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Oh, this is my favorite Joshilyn Jackson book to date. It may even be my favorite of the year. So incredibly good! I already have my bookclub anxious to read!

This was kind of a surprise. I expected this to be a standard thriller, but it was so much more complex. There were themes of both motherhood and social issues.

They might not have all been healthy, but I think the author did a great job of showing that there are a lot of different families and what it means to be a mother within those different families. It was still within a thriller, so I also had that ‘just one more chapter’ thing too - a pretty good combo.

Though I didn’t my necessarily feel that the characters were exceptionally developed, I think the intense focus on the main character (Bree) really gave a good look at the other characters as well, which really heightened my investment.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Harper Audio, and Joshilyn Jackson for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

Not only is Mother May I a well written thriller , the audio book narrated by Joshilyn Jackson is so well done that you get lost in the story from the beginning to the end.

The audio book is well done, the voices that Josh Jackson does are perfect and you feel like you are right there with Bree talking to the "witch" who kidnapped her son and is out for revenge from 2o years ago.

Suspense with twists and turns will keep you guessing and listening/reading.

I thoroughly enjoyed Mother May I.

Thanks to NetGalley , Harper Audio for the opportunity to indulge in Mother May I

Thank you HarperAudio for the ALC of Mother May I by Joshilyn Jackson! This was another great story by Jackson as she is making her way up to an auto-read author of mine. You quickly get brought into Bree Cabbat's worst nightmare when a somewhat murky dream of a witch standing outside her bedroom window turns into her child being kidnapped by said witch. What at first seemed like a standard domestic thriller soon turned into an intertwined mystery dating back 20 years in the main characters lives. The narration behind Bree and what she is going through as a mother and wife through this story was fantastic. I loved the ending, and the story behind it. You see thriller after thriller hitting on heavy topics but Joshilyn Jackson brought it to light in a way that made you know she wasn't just using the topic to move the story along. Can't wait to see what she writes next!

Joshilyn Jackson does it again! I listened to the entire audiobook on a road trip and it did not disappoint...at times I found myself gripping the steering wheel in suspense and wanting to turn up the speed to hear what happened next. Jackson has such a knack for developing mysterious characters that you care far but also don't fully trust. This was a bit darker than most domestic thrillers I read but I thoroughly enjoyed the twists and appreciated the tidy ending.

When Bri sees a witch outside of her window she just thinks she's overtired, her youngest Robby is only 10 weeks old. But when the unthinkable happens, her son disappears, Bri realizes the witch is real and the world is the dangerous place her mother always said it was. She will do anything to get her son back and enlists the widow of her best-friend to help. What she doesn't expect is to find the secret from the past that led to this. Will they survive? A story of mother love that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

The author narrates the book and is the voice of Bri.

I am a huge fan of Joshilyn Jackson and was not disappointed with this book. I listened to this book which is read by the author. The narration went very well with the book. The story really moved quickly and kept me interested.

It's been awhile since I've read a thriller, and this one was perfectly dark and twisted. Bree's mind was not a pleasant place to be. After her child is kidnapped, Bree's spiraling thoughts led her to develop a disturbing yet compelling empathy with the woman who kidnapped her child. This book explores the lengths a mother will go for her children, how the past is never truly behind you, and how even the people you know best can harbor the darkest secrets.

I didn't like the romantic elements of the story at first, but it grew on me by the end. I also thought the ending dragged out a bit... there was an explosive scene that felt like the end, but there were still more twists and turns to come. This thriller was well-written, thought-provoking, and unsettling.

TW/CW: rape, kidnapping, poison, gun violence

A heart pounding and page turning thriller. When a mothers worst nightmare becomes a reality she will go through any length to ensure she gets her child/children back unharmed. The woven webs of deceit in this story run deep. The narration was great and easy to listen to! Highly recommended!

From the author of "Never Have I Ever", comes a thrilling edge of your seat domestic thriller. Fantastic storytelling that examines the price a mother is willing to pay to find her kidnapped child. The narration was well done and really intensified the story. Compelling, well written story you will not want to miss.

Mother May I. This book turned out to be better than I initially thought! When I first started listening to the audio book I wasn’t fond of the lady doing the reading. Her accents seemed to be all over the place and she was hard to follow but it turned around.
A mother’s worst nightmare came true in this gripping story! One can only imagine their child being taken from them and then really not know where to turn. There was so many secrets hidden from her husbands past which resulted in the kidnapping of their youngest child. In order to get him back, she had to follow the instruction of “the mother”. Throughout the book there were times I felt the pain she was going through. With the help of one of her closest and oldest friends she was eventually able to get her son back but not without challenges and those old secrets coming to the surface. Who do you trust when you can’t even trust your own husband?
I am glad I pushed through this book, I would like to read other books by this author. If you are into suspense, give this book a try!

I listened to the audio narrated by the author herself. I actually had a hard copy of the ARC in my possession and at the recommendation of another reader I decided to forgo the actual book for the audio just because it was narrated by her. I was not disappointed. Joshilyn Jackson did an fantastic job! The overall story was enjoyable and kept my attention. I did feel like there were times it was a bit repetitious. It still deserves 4 stars in my opinion. If you have the opportunity to listen to the story go for it. You won't regret it.

May I tell you about a heart pounding audiobook entitled Mother May I, by Joshilyn Jackson? I’ve been enjoyed books by this author since reading her book, Gods in Alabama. Her books are full of characters you will remember! They are books that are in a slim category for me which are ones I would read again. Mother May I is indeed heart pounding, and can be heart wrenching as it involves several child kidnappings. What will a mother do to get her child back? The author is the narrator of this book, and I love that she narrated it! Joshilyn did a superb job and adds to the storytelling. Narrators can sometimes make or break listening to audiobooks for me. This one kept me finding every opportunity to listen to it. How the story is woven together will keep you in suspense and hitting the play button every chance you get. I highly recommend this audio version.

Bree seems to have a picture-perfect life with a loving husband, two teenage daughters, and a new baby boy. But she suddenly faces every mother’s nightmare when her newborn son is kidnapped by an older woman who makes a demand in exchange for her child’s life.

To get her baby back, Bree must complete one small—but critical—task. It seems harmless enough, but her action comes with a devastating price, making her complicit in a tangled web of tragedy and shocking secrets that could destroy everything she loves.

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Overall, this domestic thriller is heavier on the ‘domestic’ and lighter on the ‘thriller’ to me. Unlike Jackson’s last book, Never Have I Ever, which had me on the edge of my seat throughout, this one -- after a strong beginning -- had me sinking into the couch a few times during the midpoint.

The start of the story is gripping, with the suggestion that there is some type of witch haunting our main character (Bree), peering in through the windows of her home, but then the pacing slows. There’s a good deal of time spent in Bree’s head, delivering backstory, so the forward action you typically get in a good thriller becomes weighed down. At some point during all of this, as a reader, I lost my connection with her. And when the action does begin moving forward at a better pace, Bree doesn’t seem to be proactive enough, given the genre and the circumstances: it seems like a couple of other characters step in and take action for her too often.

I will say that the ending is VERY strong and fun. This story starts with a jolt and ends with a BANG!! Jackson seems to be a master at nailing the start and the close of a great thriller, and I give her mad props for successfully acting as the narrator of her own audiobooks, too!!

This could be a good read for those who love domestic thrillers and aren’t put off by a slower pace.

This hits the shelves on April 6!

Thank you William Morrow for the ARC!

I haven't ever been much of a fan of audible books and hadn't listened to one in years but I'm glad I gave this one a chance! Joshilyn Jackson is one of my favorite writers and is a queen of domestic suspense.! I have a 7 and 1/2 hour drive ahead of me and began the book as I rolled out of town.The plot in this book tears along quickly and left me literally on the edge of my seat. Begining with a dream sequence when Bree awakened in the middle of the night and sees a witchlike old woman staring in her bedroom window. Shakily she wakes her husband who humors her by looking at the window but doesn't see anything. However, Bree cannot let go of the feeling of terror she has in her gut and her feeling of mother's intuition that something is very wrong. She takes a deep breth and tells herself it must have been a bad dream. One from which she hadn't completely awakened when she saw the old crone's face.
Bree lives a life of wealth and privledge and basically no worries. Unlike when she grew up being raised by a single mother who worried about everything, thought the worst of everyone and every situation, raising Bree to be distrustful, afraid and suspicious. But after Bree grew up, she established her own picture perfect life and left her mother's fears behind. Bree embraces her picture perfect life with a loving husband, two teenage daughters, and a brand new baby boy. The baby was unexpected but Bree is relishing getting to immerse herself once again in the tender sweet role of a new mother. She feels she's been given a second chance to hang on to baby Robert's early babyhood and to experience all the joys he brings.
But when Bree takes the baby to a school practice for the older girls she thinks she sees the old lady scurrying through the parking lot! Trying to shake off this ominous feeling she loses sight of the woman and takes the baby inside. A while later Bree takes her eyes off Robert in his baby carrier for a couple of minutes and turns around to find Robert gone! Someone has taken Bree's baby!
It isn't long before Robert's kidnapper contacts Bree through a cell phone she leaves behind for her. It is the old women she'd seen in the parking lot and she does indeed have Robert. But as the old woman speaks to her she realizes she's a mother herself and sounds as if she cares for Robert and in the next breath tells Bree '"she will snap his little neck" if Bree doesn't do as she says. How could a mother ever talk that way about a tiny baby? But Bree quickly realizes she is dealing with a dangerous and possibly deranged woman.
What follows is a pulse pounding thriller, that left me dry mouthed, rising in intensity as Bree must decide how far she'll go to save her child before it's too late.,