This book centres on a family, mum, dad and son and how secrets always come out. This book tells the story from the perspective of the mum and the son - something that i don't think I've come across before and it added a great angle to the story. i did find the first plot twist quite easy to work out what was going to happened . . . . however the second completely blew me out of the water! it was so good! I really struggled to put this one down i enjoyed it so much! its a prime example of how one little action can have far reaching consequences. i really enjoyed this book

Okay I absolutely loved this book and so much more than I thought I was going to. The premise instantly intrigued me and I’m so glad it didn’t disappoint. Such a solid and entertaining read!

The dialogue is a bit crunchy and the word "whilst" is wildly overused, but it's so fun to get to read a character who is just unapologetically nuckin' futs that I found I didn't mind.

What's one little lie in exchange for everything you've ever wanted? Chantal has it all. The man of her dreams, the child she hoped for, and she's at the peak of her career. Everything is perfect until she starts receiving messages that cause her carefully curated existence to unravel one web of lies at a time.

Alex wants to save the planet, one protest and eco-friendly choice at a time. If only his parents weren't so rich, famous and gorgeous, living in an idyllic (and so not environmentally friendly) home in the Sussex countryside. Soooo embarrassing, right? He's a typical teenager, who genuinely means well and just can't figure out why his mother is acting more and more unhinged and his dad is barely around anymore. He's questioning everything, all while studying for his A Levels and trying to keep his cool girlfriend happy.

The Only Child is a story about motherhood, family, guilt and the toxic nature of secrets and lies. I thought it was a gripping thriller. I loved getting to the grit of the story through both Chantal and Alex's eyes. They had such different perspectives. While some of the plot points were somewhat predictable, there were red herrings at every turn. Really, anyone could be a bad guy in disguise. It was fun to be kept on my toes. I enjoyed the writing, pace, characters and the interesting twist at the end. I would definitely recommend and read more of Miranda Rijks' work.

Chantal, Stuart, and their son, Alex. They are the perfect family. They have the perfect lives. Beautiful home, excellent jobs, and a passionate son. But everything they have is based on a lie. One that only Chantal knows.

Or at least that's what she thinks.

When Chantal starts being blackmailed, she is determined to get to the bottom of it, and fight fire with fire. But she never could have guessed what the result would be.

This book starts with a bang! I was immediately pulled in, as the prologue begins with our protagonist tied to a chair and locked in a room. I was excited to keep reading to see what brought us to this point.

The majority of the book takes place from Chantal's point of view, jumping from present day, to 17 years in the past. The pace of the book was enjoyable. Eventually we begin getting chapters from Alex's perspective as well, which was great. This was well written and kept me guessing constantly. There are also some red herrings thrown in here that kept me on my toes as I read. It was an exciting read that had me with so many theories, I simply had to talk about it with my family.

The mystery in this book is one that kept me guessing right til the end. It was done so well that I truly didn't see the final result coming, and those are my favourite kinds of books!

My only real critique of the book is that I found the protagonist, Chantal, very unlikable. I like to be rooting for the main character, and in this case, I just didn't enjoy her at all. I believe having finished the book that there are reasons why she was written this way, so it makes sense, but it made me enjoy the book slightly less.

Overall I give this book a 4.5/5.

Thank you very much for the ARC, I greatly appreciate it as it was a very enjoyable read.

This ARC was provided to me via Kindle by Inkubator and #NetGalley for my honest opinion. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

This thriller wasn’t as thrilling as it was so-so. I couldn’t get into unfortunately.

The book has three main characters that are together thanks to something that happened in the past and now can`t see each other. Chantal is a successful divorce lawyer whose son caused her career to fall apart and her life too. I think the end was abrupt. Everything was solved very quickly and I didn`t like how it finish. Almost all happy but one, Chantal.

As much as I truly appreciated the premise and structure of this novel & plot, for me it fell a bit short with the ending. It seemed too abrupt and a bit far-fetched. But I did enjoy the few good revelations!
I'll definitely give this author another chance though.

Chantal is obsessed with appearances - as a hot-shot divorce lawyer, married to an up and coming TV anchorman, she lives in the perfect house, with her perfect son and enjoys working out (repeatedly) in her purpose-built home gym.

Frankly, she's a tedious and quite unlikable character.

Which is why it's nice to know someone's out to get her and bring her wonderful rub-it-in-everyone's-faces life crumbling down around her.

The only problem is, this is such a painfully slow burner. Told via "then" and "now chapters, predominantly from Chantal's POV, this story slowly unravels to show the lies Chantal has told, and the depths she has gone to create this idyllic lifestyle.

This is the first book I've read by this author, and I'll be honest, I'm not sure I'm entirely sold on her style. As I said, I didn't like the main character, and the others were equally annoying. There was no real grit or depth to any of the relationships, largely because I found the dialogue to be exceptionally clunky and unrealistic. I cringed on more than a handful of occasions (I thought this was a debut novel). Equally, there are a lot of inconsistencies with the characters and the timeline which I found distracting.

Despite lots of opportunity to (there are more red herrings in this book than a fish market) I never felt as though the tension really built. I couldn't get to a stage where I was desperate to read one more chapter to find out what happened next. I was never "worried" about any of the characters ... vaguely interested at times, bored at others.

The ending felt insanely rushed, too. A quick wham-bam, vague explanation and a cop out "One Year Later ..." chapter to tie it off. If I'm honest, it felt as though the author wasn't entirely invested in this story. As a result, in parts I felt it got away from her, and she lacked the desire to really tidy it up.

A vaguely intriguing story, executed poorly. Very disappointing.

I liked this one well enough. I was pleasantly surprised by the end, because I thought the mystery was decently constructed--not as easy to predict as some books.

A high flying couple with a secret that can tear them apart. This is the first book I've read by this author, it was OK , it had twists and turns and it took me a while to get to grips with the different timelines. unfortunately it didn't get me gripped and wanting more, however it was a good read to fill a rainy afternoon.

Thank you Netgalley, Inkubator Books, and Author Miranda Rijks for this ARC.

I found this tale a bit hard to get into. I especially found the characters hard to get to know. But as I kept reading, I realized it was probably a good thing that the characters were a bit alien to me--not one of them was a good person. When the mysterious messages came into play, I was so intrigued.

There were quite a few minor plot holes and character discrepancies that I hope get caught and fixed in a final edit.

One little boy. One little lie. Where will it end?
Chantal and Stuart are a golden couple. She’s a high-flying divorce lawyer dealing with the biggest case of her career, and he’s the darling of daytime television, on the cusp of A list celebrity. Their seventeen-year old son Alex is a passionate environmentalist, the apple of his mother’s eye.
And it’s all built on a lie.
A lie told by Chantal.
When someone discovers her secret and starts to blackmail her, Chantal’s perfect life threatens to go into freefall. Her marriage, her career, and even her relationship with her son are at stake. She can’t let it happen!
She decides to fight fire with fire, but soon finds her actions have extreme - and unexpected - consequences. As she is pulled ever deeper into a web of lies and deceit, she has to ask the most terrifying question of all…
Where will it end?

This is one of those that you just can't put down.
The plot and story line are very well written and you will think you know what happens but you don't.
By the time I finished my mouth was hanging open going OMG!!!
Such an excellent thriller and I can't wait to read more from this author.
I loved it and highly recommend reading.

I was provided an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher. This is my own honest voluntary review.

Chantal and Stuart had met and fallen in love when they were young. He got a chance to go abroad so Chantal got a transfer to Manchester. She managed to come back to meet Stuart with a baby boy, Alex, in tow...it was a surprise for everyone! Stuart was over the moon, he proposed and they got married. Just what Chantal had wanted.

Almost eighteen years later, Chantal had become a top divorce lawyer and Stuart was appearing on daytime television. Alex was a passionate environmentalist. Then Stuart got his big break and got asked to do Breakfast TV, Alex got arrested at a protest and a big divorce case that Chantal was covering was under threat due to Alex’s behaviour. Chantal felt that her perfect life was under threat and then the blackmail started!

Someone knew her biggest secret but who could it be? She hadn’t even shared it with her sister. Who could have tracked her down? Then she remembered that Stuart was now a celebrity and there had been an article about the divorce case in the paper, someone could have seen that, the price of fame...she thought. She took off for Manchester as things weren’t great at home and thought she would see if she could at least find the girls, see if they were involved in the blackmail. Little did she know what consequences her actions would have…..

This book was such a fantastic read, it was full of tension and suspense. A really good psychological thriller. I love the descriptive, easy writing style of this author. It makes the book easier to read and the plot makes you just want to keep turning the pages over to find out what is happening next. I feel like I’m living the story when reading it. This book was written in the ‘now’ and ‘then’ style which I really enjoy plus it was a narrative from Chantal and Alex so it was told from two sides. This is now the third book from this author which I have really enjoyed reading.

Wow, wow, wow! This is my first book by this author and certainly won’t be my last. This story was so well laid out with the systematic and methodical unraveling of a family, it was hard to put this one down. Thank you to Netgalley, Inkubator Books, and Miranda Rijks for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Though I like Miranda Rijks' books, this one didn't feel like her regular ones
The character were damp and the main character, Chantal, what is she?!

The end felt as if it had been all wrapped up too soon.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC

I love all Miranda Rijks books and this one did not disappoint!! The plot twists are always crazy and the suspense is real! It wasn't my absolute favorite by her but I think that's just because the bar is set so high. Glad I read it and definitely recommend.

A thank you to Netgalley for sharing the ARC is exchange for an honest review.

Wow. I'm actually a little perplexed by all the rave reviews of this one. It started off strong - storyline with potential, interesting characters, and I thought that the author did a fine job with the alternating past and present chapters. However, somewhere towards the middle it started to unspool, then really unspool, and then the ending? I honestly feel like this may be the most ridiculous book I've read this year.

Miranda Rijks is one of my favorite psychological thriller writers. You always know to expect the unexpected twists and big reveals. The Only Child is slightly different in that we know the circumstances of the major catalyst early on, and we see the damage caused by an act of violence and the consequences years later. Chantal, the main character is living her best life with tv presenter husband Stuart and teenage son, Alex. When questions are raised regarding Alex Chantal is disturbed and goes from 0-100 bat s crazy within a page or two. Now, I’m all for the unreliable narrator and love rooting for the ‘they did me wrong’ character but everyone is so unlikable I wasn’t totally invested nor on board with all the events as their lives quickly unraveled. Glad I read it but it’s not my favorite.

This book captured my attention with the cover and I was in the mood for a mystery read. However, this book got on my nerves and frustrated the heck out of me. The book starts with meeting Chantal who is a lawyer and her husband Stuart who has just been promoted to an awesome news reporter slot. Life has been great for them as they are finally at the top of their careers, however, their son Alex has different ideas as he has currently turned into a pro-environmentalist and his current target is the LALO clothing company which the husband is Chantal's client and with his dad now in the spotlight, the family is under pressure and Chantal is starting to crack. If that wasn't bad enough, she is being blackmailed as seventeen years ago she chose that if anyone finds out the truth, it could cause dangerous consequences and a ripple of events. As I was saying at the start, this book frustrated me as I hated the son Alex as he was a spoilt selfish brat and such an arrogant prick, and then when the blackmailer is revealed and the ending revealed it was like seriously WTF. If you like mysteries, then you may enjoy this as everyone loved Gone Girl and even that had the worst ending than this book.