Andrea and her husband Terry are new in town. Andy is pregnant and home taking care of her young son while Terry works all day. Alone day after day, Andrea is open to befriending the woman across the street who shows up at her door. Gabby has a teenage son of her own, and her husband always travels for work, so she knows what it's like to be alone so often. When Gabby offers to watch Jack so that Andrea can get a little break, she can't believe her luck. But, when she wakes up from a much-needed nap, her son and Gabby are nowhere to be found. There has to be a logical explanation, right?

Y'all know I love Nicole Trope. I'll read any domestic thriller she writes. This one had everything I've come to love about Trope's writing: characters you can't help but question, twists and turns, multiple POVs, short chapters. Both women in the story had secrets, and I enjoyed trying to figure out who I could trust.

Did I guess some of the twists? Yup. But it was more of a "yes, I got that right!" instead of a "dang, I saw that coming" if that makes sense.

If you are looking for a quick and twisty thriller, check this one out!

This was worth reading.

It was a slow burn and build-up of secrets...

And just when you think, the loony neighbor was loony from the get-go, the final surprise is
shocking.

It is scary to know, that things like this can and do happen.

This read was worth it, can absolutely recommend in the psychological thriller genre !

This book started out really slow. I almost gave up but was real glad I didn't. The second half was great. I really loved the ending. Lots of twists. Its the story about two neighbors hiding secrets.

I read The Stay-At-Home Mother over the course of one weekend and I absolutely loved it! The writing is so smooth and really keeps you turning the pages. Gabby was especially intriguing to me as I am drawn to characters with rich psychological issues who are both vulnerable and dangerous at the same time. The author did a fantastic job of making me care about both Gabby and Andrea, which put me in an impossible dilemma (in a good way) while I was reading. I was completely taken by surprise at the ending. What an incredible read!

New neighborhood. New friends. But nothing is as it seems. What kind of trouble has her husband gotten them into now? Could see this as a Lifetime move! Great book!

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. Thank you NetGalley, Nicole Troupe and Bookouture for hearing my honest review. Looking forward to reading more with you
#partner

3 stars for me. I enjoyed the book, it was easy reading and I read it fairly quickly considering I have young children at home. It tells the story of a mothers worst nightmare so be prepared to hug your children close as you read!

Unfortunately I found the storyline fairly predictable and I did guess a lot of the twists before they became apparent. I found the first half of the book fairly boring and then it picked up in the second half.

I would say it’s definitely worth a read if you’re looking for something quick and easy that doesn’t require much thinking but also gives some twists along the way.

This is best for a quick hit thriller, think airport read maybe.

Pacy and remarkably light given the plot.

Andrea's life is uprooted due to bad choices her husband has made. Her, her husband, and 3 year old son Jack have to sell their home and move into a shoddy rental. She is also extremely pregnant and still worrying that her husband is continuing to gamble.

The only bright light seems to her her neighbor Gabby. She is a put together mother of a teenager and seems to be a wealth of knowledge on parenting.

Andrea starts feeling some red flags after there is confusion with Andrea eating Jack and some things she says not quote adding up.

Do we ever know who are neighbours are or what is fulling going on in our own homes?

This book was a good read and has you guessing up until the end about who this woman is and what she wants.

Her chest tightens, her heart speeding up. The kitchen is chaos. She steps on something hard, and looks down. Toy dinosaurs are scattered everywhere. But her son is nowhere – her baby boy is gone.

An entertaining popcorn thriller with lots of juicy twists and turns. Set in Sydney, Australia we follow Andrea, heavily pregnant and mother of a three-year-old. Gabby, her new neighbour and a mother to a teenage son. They develop a friendship, until something terrible happens and things quickly spiral out of control. This has it all - unreliable narrators, palpable feelings of a mother’s desperation, an emotional roller-coaster, mental health issues, fraud and deceit and an exploration into relationships - and how well we really know someone. I flew through this, and cannot wait to read more from Nicole Trope! Highly recommended!

I was so disappointed with this book I really thought it was be amazing but nothing seemed to be happening at all, I lost interest in it.

The description on the back of this book instantly grabbed my attention. Told from alternating perspectives this book delves into the fear all parents have of their child going missing. The author carefully weaves parents anxiety with hidden secrets forcing you to ask- who is telling the truth?

Towards the end of this book I guessed what would happen. However, I only guessed part right and was SHOCKED at the conclusion! This was a fun, twisty, turny domestic thriller that got me excited to read more by Nicole Trope.

Not what I expected! Every time I thought I had it figured out, there was another twist. The book opens with pregnant mother Andrea receiving a disturbing phone call while the police are in her home after her child goes missing. Andrea isn't sure who she can trust - her husband, her neighbor Gabby, or even herself. There are clearly some secrets here, though the truth isn't revealed until the very end. This was a quick, suspenseful read.

Heavily pregnant Andrea moves to a new neighbourhood with her husband and son. She quickly befriends her neighbour Gabby but both women are keeping secrets...
The Stay At Home Mother is a psychological thriller and domestic drama set in Australia.
The book is written from the alternating perspectives of Gabby and Andrea. Both women are flawed and vulnerable and there are clues that deeper secrets are being withheld from us as well as each other.
Neither woman is particularly happy. They are both stay at home mothers but at very different stages. Andrea has a toddler and is almost ready to give birth again. Gabby has a sullen teenager. I think all mums will be able to identify with them as they sacrifice their own selves for the sake of harmony in their families as well as their children's happiness.
There is a great tension which builds over the course of the book. I enjoyed the sinister hints which creates an anticipation as I tried to work out Gabby and Andrea's secrets. The different viewpoints allows us to see that both women are keeping secrets from the other. The ending had a great twist that made me re-evaluate one of the characters and all their interactions.
The Stay At Home Mother has two wonderfully imperfect lead characters and an engaging plot.

I love love love this author and will read anything by her. Her books make you think, experience, feel. This one is no different and in my opinion her best yet. Do read this one.

Andrea and her husband Terry have had to downsize and move to a new neighborhood. Overwhelmed and with a baby due soon, Andrea gladly behinds her neighbor Gabby. Gabby instantly bonds with the young stay-at-home-mother, as she herself is on me too. Since her son is a teenager now, she has time on her hands and is happy to give Andrea a break by babysitting her toddler. On one of these occasions, Andrea returns home to find her son gone and Gabby’s house ransacked. It’s a mother’s worst nightmare.

This story grabbed me from the first few pages and never let up! My heart was in my throat for Andrea; I know what it is like to have young children and no village to support you. I can feel her desperation that made her finally accept Gabby’s help. It’s scary to think you could never really know somebody. There were several twists I didn’t see coming and the ending blew me away too. I think any thriller fan (particularly if domestic thrillers) would enjoy this one! Thank you to Netgalley, Nicole Trope and Bookouture the ARC! This book is out now.

This review will be shared to my Instagram blog (@books_by_the_bottle) shortly.

This psychological domestic thriller was really gripping and had me hooked early on. I felt an array of emotions while reading. I enjoyed trying to work out what the twist would be with the characters and how they would cope with what was happening. I really felt for Andrea's character with everything she was dealing with.
Looking forward to reading this authors extensive backlist.

I didn’t love this as much as I was really hoping to; for me it felt like something I had read before and nothing new and exiting

The Stay-at-Home Mother by Nicole Trope is a psychological thriller set in Australia.

It is told in different points of view and I found it interesting to read thoughts from both main characters.
I found it atmospheric and suspenseful, you could tell something was about to happen and that things are not picture perfect as it seemed on the outside.
On the other hand it was quite predictable and pretty slow going at least the first half, while it picked up a bit in the second.
It didn't hold my interest and I had a difficult time finishing the book. Maybe because I read a lot of thrillers and this is not something new to me while it might be quite the right choice for those who have just started reading in this genre or have never read domestic thriller before.

This book had a great plot but was a little unbelievable and seemed to be slow. It was my first book of 2023 and couldn't get excited about it. I like others by this author.

Thank you to NetGalley and Booktoure for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I found the first thirteen chapters to be super boring, by the fourteenth chapter the storyline started to pick up a bit and became more interesting. Hated the whole “all of social media is a façade” nearing the end of the story, I get that that is technically part of the storyline but seemed repetitive at the end. Hated all of the characters, I don’t think any of them had any redeeming qualities and the epilogues at the end seemed a bit ridiculous. I just feel like the characters and the story as to why Gabby did what she did was poorly written. I don’t think I’ll be recommending this story to anyone.