No Child of Mine focuses on a goal driven woman in pursuit of a career in Law. Unexpectedly she discovers herself to be pregnant and cannot help but question her future now.

Despite it all, Essie is excited to meet her future daughter. Even though her career has to take the backseat again and the 'curse' centering around the women in her family, she knows she was meant to love her daughter.

As Essie works her way through a painful pregnancy her husband becomes more and more distant. He doesn't appear to be sleeping and Essie is consumed by constant nausea and nightmares. While her dreams progress she cannot help but wonder if the curse might be true.

When her spouse leaves her a letter indicating that she would be happier without him, Essie is determined to find a resolution to the family curse and the end to her nightmares. After all, Essie would do whatever it takes to save the man she loves and her child.

As the story progresses the chapters are split between Essie and exchanges of her ancestor and her ancestor's best friend. The reader is left to understand how the curse came to be and how it impacts Essie and her relatives.

I enjoyed No Child of Mine because it was a fresh idea and a creative idea. I was interested to find out how the story would progress and if the curse would remain. As the reader will come to discover love can make folks do the strangest of things and even the greatest darkness can be conquered by all that is light.

If you are interested in finding a mother driven story then this is a great read. It has love, a goal driven woman, and a secret with a ghost story woven throughout. I hope you enjoy. Until next time, happy reading!

Loved this book a ghost story but a really different type of ghost story.
Essie adores her husband, she has a good job they have no money problems and life was good.
Essie never thought about having a baby but it happened and it scared her.
She was brought up to know there is a curse on her family every time a baby girl is born.
Sanjay was delighted to have a baby and said the curse was nonsense and to stop worrying.
But as the pregnancy got nearer to the birth Sanjay started acting strange and talking to himself and the family were very concerned..
Thanks netgalley for letting me have an early copy of this book.

No child Of Mine
Nichelle Giraldes @nichellegiraldes
Genre: Horror
Pace: Slow/Medium
Release Date: September 12th

"I loved you so fiercely from the moment I knew you existed."

This feminist gothic horror breaks down the whole nine months of an unexpected and not so perfect pregnancy and the fight for the love of a lifetime while the whispers and past generational trauma creates dread and immediate regret

Horrifying, brilliant and relatable debut

The alternating eerie timelines will have you so absorbed right from the beginning. I had the hardest time putting it down

The light that this book shines on same sex relationships in the early days, mental illness and pregnancy was so impactful and was quiet refreshing to see take up such a huge part of the plot

The atmospheric descriptions and imagery will sure give you the absolute heebie-jeebies and have the hair on the back of your neck standing up in no time.

When it all comes together in the end I was totally taken by complete shock. So good and entirely unexpected

Thank you to @netgalley and @poisonedpenpress for the arc in exchange for my thoughts and opinions

When I started the book, I thought it would be nothing more than a good horror book with few ghosts or demons, a few scary moments, and a sinister setting. This book is so much more than that and at the same time nothing like it.

I will start by saying that I liked the writing style a lot - it is really detailed and depicting not just the overall picture, but every element of it that would help the reader to imagine the setting as if the reader were there, as well as to get to know the characters and their story from the very beginning, without it looking out of place and like too much.

The pace in the book develops slowly, and there is almost no dynamics, because here is put much more emphasis on the emotional impact on the reader, as well as the inner reflections that the written there would provoke. The emerging mystery in the present and the mystery of its relationship with the scenes of the past manage to maintain interest even without the dynamics. The fragments of something supernatural, something sinister, keep the reader under really good pressure, makes him constantly wait.

The characters are awesomely built and set throughout the story. Multi-layered, deep and real, they present their story, and even if we do not have a look at the thoughts of all of them, we manage to get to know them enough through their actions.

Essie made a huge impression on me and my opinion of her managed to change as the book progressed. To many people, Essie would seem selfish and even self-absorbed, perhaps not a complete woman because of her reluctance to have a child and be a mother. But I don't think that's the real case with her. Essie is afraid of losing herself when she becomes a mother. She’s afraid she would stay only that and stop being everything else – a woman, a wife, a friend, a lawyer, a professional. She wants to be so much more and wants everyone around her to see her as something more, too, and the anxiety, fear and doubts she goes through while she is pregnant can not help but touch and influence every woman. Including the fear of losing her partner, who is the love of her life, the author gets so deeply into the emotions of the readers, that this story can not help but get under their skin and be remembered.

"She would never stop reaching into the dark for him."

The climax is very fast, I almost couldn’t feel it, but I can not imagine a better fit for the book, as here it was not the action that was important, but the growth of the characters and the love between them.

The book ends almost immediately after the climax, which leaves the delusion that the end hangs in nowhere, but I think it is clearly finished.

I surprised even myself with the high rating I gave "No Child of Mine" , but the way it managed to get under my skin was no less surprising to me. It's definitely a book that if you give it a chance, you can't go wrong. Just do not expect action in it, let the emotions lead you.

If you enjoyed practical magic this ones for you.
Curses, love and loss in a family that only gives birth to girls. Problem is, once they do the curse kicks in and they lose their loved one. Essie has just gotten pregnant will the same happen to her? Or will she be able to break the curse that has plagued her family for generations.

Deliciously fun and haunting. A gothic, timeless feel. Slow in some places, but the characters and scenario keep the reader involved.

I really like this book. It was just creepy enough to keep me engaged. The story was set in two different timelines and it was very interesting to follow along to see how both related to each other.
The main character was s little annoying at the beginning but I got to like her more and more as the story unfolded. The idea of the second timeline was great and I really enjoyed getting to know that story and seeing how a curse made centuries ago affected many future generations.

This is a very unique, well written and spooky story.

Thank you NetGalley, Poisoned Pen Press and the author for a copy of ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley, Nichelle Giraldes and Poisoned Pen Press for the free e-book in exchange for an honest review.

I was so enamoured by the idea of this author and I expected more horror or gore, but it was amazing how little of that was needed to make this a terrific novel. I really enjoyed the characters and the backstories we get from decades past. I really didn’t want to leave Essie to do anything - I had to know what was going to happen.

No Child of Mine is a great to read into the fall months. It has that creepy, haunted house feel to it.
I loved the concept of this book. Essie is unexpectedly pregnant while trying to finish up her last year of law school, but is the family curse coming to take its next victim?
Told from two different timelines, I enjoyed seeing how they intertwined in the end. However, felt as if the ended could have been branched out on more - it was a little rushed and I didn’t feel like there was any real closure.

Overall, great quick read, especially if you have a thing for creepy houses.

Thank you NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for this advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

Pub date: 12 Sep 2023

I wanted to love this book but I just couldn't connect. It was repetitive and so much talk about the pregnancy that I quickly lost interest but kept going because I thought once I got past that, it would be good. However, I just didn't like this one. I think I was expecting far more creepiness and "horror".

Thanks for the opportunity to read this one!

Hmmm. So I didn’t love this, unfortunately. I ended up being a little meh about it?

This was *mostly* about pregnancy which is a subject that doesn’t interest me *at all*. I wanted more spooky haunted house stuff and less… it’s terrifying to grow a human.

I was honestly shocked to discover that this is billed as horror? I didn’t find it terrifying in the slightest. It felt more like a slow burn thriller, than anything?? So I think this was also mismarketed….?

My biggest problem with this, though, is that I read a book earlier this year that was *veeeeery* similar to this one and I couldn’t help but compare them. The other one just seemed to do this story better, imo. It had a lot more horror, for one thing, and didn’t just go all in on the pregnancy.

I also enjoyed this book’s second storyline, with Ana and Isabel, a lot more than the main story. So every time we went back to Essie, I was bored and annoyed.

I am also a very firm believer that people who do not want children, should not have them. And Essie spent this entire book not wanting a child but having one anyway and it just rubbed me the wrong way?

So this was just a big ole meh from me? It did ~some creepy spooky vibes well? But it just needed to focus more on those and less on the pregnancy? At least to seem like a horror novel, to me.

Anyway. Thank you to NetGalley & Poisoned Pen Press for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed the dual timelines but at certain points I wasn't too interested in the past because I just wanted to see what was going to happen in the house and get to the scary part. It didn't feel much like a horror book which was a bit disappointing. It was an interesting read but I was hoping for some creepier vibes than what it was. I would've liked to have more of Sanjay's conversations with the whispers included or even his pov. I was so interested to see how it would all end & even the end felt too peaceful & calm for a horror book. I did like the relationship between Essie & Sanjay & how much they cared for each other but even that felt too peaceful lol. Overall, I did enjoy this read I just would've loved for it to be scarier.

Thank you to Poisoned Pen Press & Netgalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review

I enjoyed this. The pacing was good. It's unique and well written. Overall, I liked it. Special Thank You to Nichelle Giraldes, Poisoned Pen Press, and NetGalley for allowing me to read a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.

⭐️⭐️BOOK REVIEW⭐️⭐️

No Child of Mine by Nichelle Giraldes

Essie, a hardworking woman who put her career on hold to further her loving husbands’ finds out she’s pregnant as she’s nearly at the end of her law school journey. She struggles with family versus career, having already put so much on hold that the timing of this pregnancy is often the center of her thoughts. Also adding elements to the story is this family curse that has involved generations of women on Essie’s side.

There were few things that I really loved about this book. The writing was very well done, I found myself rewinding to audio to just relisten to passages because of how easily the words flowed and conveyed the plot. The narration was also phenomenal. I will be seeking out other narrations by this cast as they all did an incredible job.

For me, the dual timelines just didn’t work for the first 90% of the book, and once the connection was made it was almost too late for me to forgive that. The stories were so disconnected for a majority of the time, and Anna and Isabel’s voices weren’t distinct enough for me to really be invested in that part of the story.

Thank you Poisoned Pen Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I may retry this one later, but for now it was a DNF for me. I could not connect to the characters and due to the story primarily being about a husband’s affliction, I felt that the title was misleading.

I will try and come back with more thoughts if I am able to finish this title, but for now, due to boredom and a general lack of interest conceptually I felt it wasn’t the right book for me.

“And in a way, the babies were right; who were they but pieces of their mother stitched together into a tiny, new body?”

Essie has never imagined herself as a mother. Children were never a part of her plan. But when she finds herself pregnant, even though she is scared, she surprisingly finds herself loving her unborn child fiercely. As pregnancy transforms her body and she tries to keep up with her law school classes, her husband Sanjay becomes increasingly anxious and distant. Meanwhile, her grandmother insists that their family is haunted by a curse that has left generations of daughters fatherless. And the house that Essie is confined to on bed rest whispers to her at night.

What a creepy and atmospheric read! From the very beginning of the story, you could feel the stillness of the house radiating off the pages, as if there was something else living there. I also really appreciated how the author was not afraid to address how much sacrifice goes into motherhood. From how much a pregnancy changes a mother’s body, to the fact that the health of the mother at times comes second to that of the baby, I found a lot of it to be very relatable. Thankfully, during my pregnancies I did not have a generational curse to worry about though! Told in dual timelines and from alternating points of view, the secrets of the past unfold as Essie struggles to make sense in the present. Perfect for spooky season, this was a fantastic debut and I can’t wait to see what the author comes up with next!

“No Child of Mine” is out now! Thanks to Netgalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the ARC! This review will be shared to my instagram blog

This book wasn’t quite what I expected but it was still good. It was well written. Thank you #NetGalley for letting me read it.

I really liked the historical parts of this novel. I found this part to be compelling and engaging. It was easy to fall for Ana and Isabel and I wanted the best for them.
When it came to the present day, I found Essie to be a hard character to root for. There was a lot of repetitiveness with the pregnancy nausea/vomiting, the not wanting a baby, and the anxiety without communicating. I found this to be a slow burn, and it just wasn’t my favorite, unfortunately.

I saw this book all over bookstagram and it sounded amazing. I just couldn't get into it like I usually would. I hated the letters between the two sisters. I felt myself wanting to skip past them. I couldn't really connect with the characters but the saving grace was the plot.

The plot was EXCELLENT! I had to know what was going to happen which is the only reason I finished it.

Maybe it was my mood who knows, but I do know, if you don't mind the style of writing, then this one would be epic for you

No Child of Mine is less of a horror/thriller and more of a look into pregnancy, identity and grief.

Essie comes from a line of women who, shortly after giving birth, lose their husbands. When she starts hearing voices and noises in her house, she starts to believe the curse could be real.

Although a very easy read, I didn't feel any connection to the plot and it failed to keep me in any sort of suspense. The short chapters kept the pace but the plot felt sluggish.

I did enjoy Essie's struggle with pregnancy, losing her own identity in the process, and the idea of putting your life on hold for having a family. There's a lot of interesting discourse on this, and I think it's something that most women feel but don't vocalize as it would make us seem "self centered" (as Sanjay so nicely puts it).