Kate and Marisa have a man in common. It’s hard to write about this book without giving away the twist. It starts off being about Marisa trying to get pregnant and then dealing with a lodger who wants her husband and then changes it up. The real villain here is the mother-in-law and the man. It was strange how we never got a good sense of who he was or why either of the women liked him. But he and his family were the foundations of the whole plot.

This is a great story that has some very surprising twists and turns that will keep you turning the pages quickly! One minute you’re on one character’s side, the next you’re reconsidering and siding with another. Great read!

This is one of those books that is hard to talk about without spoilers, but I’ll give it a go…
Marissa and Jake are blissfully happy and newly pregnant, but need some extra cash, so they take in a lodger to help with the bills…. The twists start there as points of view change and we hear the story from different perspectives.

I liked to idea of this one, but the execution was a bit disjointed. The twists were interesting but the didn’t blend together well, and this was almost like 3 different books. The final twist was a bit too tropey for me.

Thank you Simon & Schuster and Netgalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Wow! So many twists and turns in this story. About halfway through I had a “what the?!” moment that was phenomenally written. The climax and resolution were a bit of a disappointment but that didn’t mar my overall impression of this great novel.

*3.5 stars*

This book hooked me from the beginning. The suspense and build up was fantastic and I had to keep reading to see what the heck was going on.

The story starts out from the POV of Marisa who is in a relationship with Jake and they are trying for a baby. To save some money, they decide to take in another roommate, Kate. Everything seems fine, but then Marisa starts noticing a change between Jake and Kate. Fast Forward to Part II from the POV of Kate and things are... different to say the least. There was a good twist about 50% into the book and I loved it! I loved the contrasting POVs between Marisa's side of the story and Kate's side of the story. It was so interesting to hear the different sides of events.

My only gripe is after the middle twist, I felt like it was slower. I definitely wanted to keep reading because I was waiting for something and knew it was coming but then felt a bit let down in the end. I almost felt like the middle should have been the end if that makes sense? Overall, I definitely liked this book and would recommend to anyone who likes mystery and psychological intrigue.

Huge trigger warnings: SA, rape, pregnancy, infertility, miscarriage, surrogacy

Thanks to #NetGalley, Simon Schuster, and the author for a digital ARC of this book to review before it's publishing date. This did not affect my review and the opinions are my own. #Magpie

I absolutely loved this book! I didn’t see the twist coming at all, so that was a pleasant surprise! I have already suggested this book to many of my reader friends and will read more by this author.

Elizabeth Day's Magpie is a great Mother's Day gift for moms who love thrillers, given that the plot of this novel centers on the question of what it means to be a mother in the context of a surrogacy arrangement. Kate and Jake want to start a family but are unable to do so, presumably due to Kate's infertility issues. The author does an excellent job showing the reader how demoralizing the infertility journey can be for women, let alone the psychological, emotional and physical pain involved. After numerous tries, Kate and Jake latch on to the hope of surrogacy, and choose Marisa who seems to look the part, but they don't really spend the time doing a background check to see if she would really be a fit. Then, throw Jake's dominating and manipulative mother Annabelle into the mix, who has always taken great joy in taking Kate down. The narrative moves quickly back and forth, and you don't know who is telling the truth until the end, which resolves a little too fast and happily given all that has gone before. However, overall, I really enjoyed a novel that focuses on the struggles and insecurities faced by women on both sides of surrogacy arrangements. 4 out of 5 stars. Highly recommended.

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for gifting me an advanced reader's copy of this book. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

Magpie is my first book from Elizabeth Day.

"Marisa is moving in with Jake.She feels a real connection because they both want to start a family right away. Things at work are not great so they take in a lodger to help pay bills. Marisa thinks their new lodger, Kate, seems a bit too familiar with Jake. She catches them together and now she's not sure how to save her relationship with Jake."

This is not a thriller - more of a domestic drama. You may think you know which way the story is going and then BOOM - part 2 starts. Then you're headed in an unexpected direction.

It's nice to have a story with just a few characters. Day gives us a great villain - Annabelle - Jake's snobby, over-controlling mother. You will definitely have some strong feelings about her.

There's a climax to the story but it left me with a "That's it?" feeling. I wasn't sure what ending I expected but it just fell flat.

Good pick if you like domestic drama.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for gifting me a digital copy of this twisty thriller by Elizabeth Day - 4 stars!

Marisa and Jake are happily married and desperate for a baby to complete their family. They allow Kate to rent a room in their home, wanting the money to help their financial situation. However, conceiving a baby isn't going according to plan and now Marisa is worried that Kate is becoming much too familiar with Jake.

This was a twisty book - best gone into blind. This was a character-driven book and I raced through it. The infertility issue was done very realistically and respectfully, and there are a lot of other issues going on. Part of me expected another twist but it was an enjoyable read!

A couple experiencing infertility problems rents out their spare room. On the surface, everything appears perfect. But this is a domestic thriller and the note to the readers tips you off before you even start reading that not everything is what it seems, that there may be an unreliable narrator telling the story...

I loved watching this plot unfold. It went in directions I didn't expect, moving just slowly enough that I kept coming up with new ideas about what was actually going on before I started questioning the situation again. This was a great way to spend a few hours.

Magpie, by Elizabeth Day

Short Take: One for sorrow, two for joy, three for HOLY WOW

Good morning Duckies! I’m trying to be cheerful and upbeat, but can someone tell me why in the holy blue you-know-what it is snowing in April? Yes, I know it happens almost every year in this part of the world, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.

But you know what I do like? A delicious book. And oh my beloved nerdlings, does this one ever satisfy!

In Magpie, Marisa’s life is darn near perfect. She and her fabulous, handsome, loving boyfriend Jake have moved into their dream home, and are planning to start a family. But then money problems hit, and they agree to rent a room to Kate to keep everything afloat. Kate, however, is kind of a lot. She’s flirtatious with Jake, and when Marisa gets pregnant, she’s overly invested in the pregnancy. In fact, she seems to want to take over Marisa’s whole life.

Darlings, I’m not going to tell you anything more about the plot, because OH MY GOD. I read the first quarter thinking that I knew what the Big Twist would be, and feeling comfortably smug in my own smartness, but Ms. Day knocked me for a loop. Not only did she prove me right, she did it right there in the early part of the book, and then kept me guessing throughout the rest, which is my favorite type of book. I mean, who doesn’t like to be right, but then wrong, but then SO MUCH WRONGER, and then just strap in and let ‘er rip, because it just keeps swerving.

The best part is that all of it is that it all seems so very, very plausible. I’ve read and enjoyed some twisty books that are fantastic, but unbelievable, and this is so not one of those. Complicated women, repressed trauma, jealousy, [spoiler], just all of it. It’s almost too real, and I was legit reading while holding my breath in a certain part. You’ll know which one.

The Nerd’s Rating: FIVE HAPPY NEURONS (and a nice strong G&T, the cure for just about everything.)

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I enjoyed this so much more than I thought I was going too. At first it sort of reminded me of single white female and more importantly, The Hand that Rocks the Cradle

Marissa and Jake seem perfect. They had one of those whirlwind romances where they fell in love 1,2,3 and realized that they wanted to spend the rest of their lives together.

Enter in Kate. Who rents a room from them. This is where the thrilling part comes in as it obvious that Kate has alternative motives.

I'll be honest. at first I thought the book was going to be very predictable.it certainly started out that way. But then it takes some great twists and turns and shocked the heck out of me!

Magpie by Elizabeth Day is a domestic suspense that was so engaging I stayed up way too late finishing it - and then I couldn’t sleep because my brain was on overdrive thinking about it!
I love going into thrillers with little-to-no information, so I don't want to say too much about it before you read it. This is a tight, twist-filled plot about what it means to be a mother, and the writing will suck you in. I felt the storyline was unique - something I don’t usually feel about thrillers! Infertility is a central piece of the plot that I want to make sure readers know before starting.
Thank you to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion - this one publishes in the US on Tuesday, 5/3, and I definitely recommend checking it out!

This was an exciting book full of twists and turns that kept me guessing until the very end. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me a free advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

Enjoyed this book as it kept me guessing until the end. I thought I had figured it all out until a different character started telling story from her point of view. I really wasn't sure who to believe! Great finish to a suspenseful book.

Marissa has a perfect life with Jake, and Kate, their new lodger. Then Kate starts acting oddly and Marissa will do anything to keep her perfect life.

This is a twist-filled book with a great unreliable narrator…or is she? Read it and find out.

This one kept me on edge for a good potion of the experience. Not sure if this is a top purchase, but it's enjoyable.

The synopsis sounded so good but the characters weren’t as relatable as I had hoped. The storyline was good but I just didn’t love the book.

This books was ok. Kept me interested but was not as thrilling as I anticipated it would be. The writing is very good. The feelings of motherhood & navigating a relationship during pregnancy & after were very well written.

I would like to thank NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

This was a book that I just had to know how these strange characters with their even stranger living arrangement turned out. Jake and Kate are a couple, living together, but not married because Kate does not believe in vows or conventions. She does, however, want a baby in the worst way but has great difficulty conceiving. Enter Marisa on the scene as the willing surrogate who moves in with them. This was a twisted story of domestic suspense with more than a little commentary on being careful what you wish for. The relationship between Jake, Kate and Marisa went beyond belief at times, but the story was good. The plot was slow-paced at first and then once I got into the budding relationships between the characters, I was invested and the pace seemed to increase. This is a character-driven story with plenty of action, mostly taking place between Kate and Marisa. There is also a villain in the tale who adds a twist, but I won’t go into detail about this person because I don’t want to spoil the story for others. There was definitely some research involved in the IVF parts of the tale and that seemed realistically portrayed. Kate’s disappointment in not being able to conceive made her a very empathetic character, but I was not sure how to feel about Jake. He was not a strong character, but rather dominated by the various women in his life. I did like the ending, but I also felt like the last five or six chapters rushed to the foregone conclusion, tying everything together in a neat bow. I would have preferred something left to my imagination. All in all, this book was well worth reading but be prepared for a lot of drama. I could see this book as a season’s worth of episodes in a soap opera and I think fans of domestic suspense with emphasis on domestic will enjoy it.
Disclaimer
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255, “Guides Concerning the Use of Testimonials and Endorsements in Advertising.”