Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book. I have chosen to write this honest review voluntarily and it reflects my personal opinion.
From the beginning the pages were full of swear words and although we are told this was how one character spoke it applied to many of the characters. By the time I read 10% I was not prepared to read any more of this unnecessary filth and stopped reading.

Well, what to say! A story of mothers & daughters reuniting with one hell of a horrifying ending.
Nothing like I expected but it was gripping,

There's a lot to unpick with this book. I just wasn't sure what it 'was' - was it a psychological thriller, or was it horror? (it certainly turned into horror...)

Marlene, the disturbed psychotic woman who threw her baby away now wants her back - it just didn't sit right that Anna would be prepared to stay with someone who was so clearly unhinged. Her father never questioned her going back to her birth mother and left her to it? It was an uncomfortable read at times, sometimes confusing and complicated although perhaps the narrative lent itself well as it certainly played with your mind and left you feeling unhinged yourself.

It's a 3.5 / 5 from me, almost too much going on but the author has an engaging style which kept me going until the end.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I really liked the premise of this one but the execution fell a bit flat for me. The narrative jumped all over the place and I found it hard to follow. Until around two-thirds, it feels like a psychological thriller and then jumps into something closer to horror, which I was not expecting. Very graphic. I liked the idea of a long lost family reunion turning sour but the way this one played out didn't hit the mark for me. If it had continued as a psychological thriller, I think I would have enjoyed the last part of the plot more. Not a bad read but just not for me in the end.

The premise intrigued me, but it's just not for me .. reading about a monstrous mother whose main attribute is a psychosis that is unchangeable left me high and dry .. nothing non-grim about it all. Escape into horror never works for me

This book intrigued me as the blurb sounded just up my street, but I struggled with it and I had to keep dipping in and out.

It was interesting.

I was given a free copy by netgalley and the publishers but the review is entirely my own.

I tried very hard to read this book but it just didn't meet what i expected.
Many thanx to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for allowing me to read and review this book

I have such mixed reviews about this book - I just don’t know how I felt. I found it all a bit higgelty piggelty and slightly confusing.

The synopsis sounded so good and I thought it was going to be a belter of a read but it just fell quite flat for me.

I didn’t feel like the characters had that much depth to them. Anna is a very troubled character, that was evident from the get-go. She has been abandoned and adopted but when she meets her birth mother, it all changes.

She learns she is pregnant and going to be a mum and everything changes, again. It’s a rollercoaster.

I felt the booked was very jumbled and just jumped about with the characters… I didn’t know if there was a ‘then’ and ‘now’ element - it wasn’t very clear.

I wanted so bad to enjoy this but unfortunately, it’s a no from me and I am gutted!

Thank you to @netgalley and Headline/Wildfire for allowing me access to this ARC.

A torrent of suspense and danger floods this thriller, immersing you in a world of secrets and deception that keeps you hooked. Read this in one night and couldn’t put it down.

This book is not the cheery Mother’s Day read ! This is a page turning, addictive read. Once you pick it up you will not be able to put it down .
Tension and thrilling from the first page to the last

I loved this. An odd mix of thriller and humour that got a little out of control but I really enjoyed all the twists and turns

Where to start with this one? I suppose the beginning is as good a place as any. The synopsis sounded good, very Mommy Dearest, so I had high expectations that this would be a cracking story about a crackpot mother.
It starts off well enough, I liked Anna's character and the author fleshes her out nicely with a fairly good back story. Dermot and Neil are pretty essential to the plot, as we find out later on, but Hebe's character could have been developed properly. As she wasn't she felt somewhat surplas to requirements and, consequently, neither added nor detracted from the overall storyline.
The plot moves along at a good pace and I enjoyed it until the three quarter mark when it became obvious I was watching a two-bit horror film and not reading a psychological thriller as first thought. It descended into utter gore-fest, unbelievable madness, as if the author suddenly had a Jekyll and Hyde moment and switched from interesting thriller to silly B-movie horror mode. I mean, the scene with the umbilical cord - really? I skim read until the end but it left me feeling uneasy and unsettled and not in a good way. Marlene is so psychotic to the point of parody and had she been real her insanity would have been noticed, felt and reported long before she got the chance to unleash hell on her daughters.
Thank you to NetGalley and to Wildfire for the ARC.

I think my expectations were high because the hook was so cool: She gave you life - what if she wants it back? The concept felt incredibly strong so I was rather excited to read it, but felt it was hard to connect to the characters, was quite viscerally gory in parts (I could taste the iron tang of blood!) and parts did leave me a bit confused. The author certainly can write and has great ideas, but I’m not sure this book hit the mark for me unfortunately. Huge thanks to the author and publisher for the chance to read this advance review copy. Views my own. 3*

I found this book difficult to read in several ways, the unidimensional characters, the portrayal of the most extreme narcissistic personality disorder imaginable, and the gruesome body horror (im a doctor , so I’m not usually squeamish )
. I found the story unbelievable and not particularly engaging, I finished it for the sake of the review but won’t be recommending it further.

This book had a lot going on and was a bit graphic in places, perhaps just not for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and to the author for giving me the chance to read and review this book.

We begin by meeting Anna who works with Layla and has a boyfriend Dermot who is in a band. We find out early that Anna was adopted - in fact left in a handbag by the road when she was a baby. She meets her sister Hebe, they start to correspond and when they meet her birth mother is also there. Her Mother aka Ma is quite strange and unhinged and we don't always know exactly what is going on as a reader. I did enjoy the book although at points i did start to get confused with some characters having more than one name, to keep up with who was who but it didn't stop me turning the pages with this thriller. I did also find the book quite graphic and weird at some points although again this was not an issue for me. 3.5 rounded up to 4 stars.

This is definitely a novel at the gorier and more horrifying end of the psychological thriller genre, prioritising how pregnancy, birth and motherhood can change lives. I'm not sure how to describe this novel. I didn't dislike it, but I didn't love it, i kept reading out of a dark fascination despite the very unbelievable ending.

I'd be curious to read more by this author if they unleashed the full force of their ability to write horror and body horror/gore, rather than restraining it in the psychological thriller genre.

Mother’s Day explores what it means to be a mother and what society expects of mothers. It’s a twisty, gripping story that’s dark and disturbing in all the right ways for a psychological thriller. I really enjoyed this book and thoroughly recommend it. Five stars from me!

What a thrilling read! I didn’t anticipate the twists and turns and thoroughly enjoyed the warped psyche of the protagonists! You never knew what to expect and you’re kept on your toes throughout!

Anna was adopted after being abandoned as a baby and is meeting her birth mother for the first time. She also discovers that she is pregnant with her first child. Marlene is so much more than Anna expected and finds herself swept up in the excitement of getting to know her family. However things take a drastic turn when she is faced with an impossible decision that puts her life at risk.

A twisty thriller full of dark surprises.

This was an incredibly fast-paced book with a great premise. I loved the idea of a long-lost family reunion but with a shocking twist. I thought it was brilliant how Abigail Burdess made it so utterly unpredictable and had me guessing what was going on throughout the story.

I enjoyed reading how Anna and Marlene's relationship developed, it was so different to a typical mother/daughter scenario. However I couldn't quite connect with the other characters, I found them a little too complex with lots of sub-plots that got in the way of the main plot.

Overall an entertaining read that will have you instantly hooked.

Thank you NetGalley and Headline for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.