An absolutely brilliant read that had me hooked right from the start, Perfectly paced with just the right amount of twists to deliver a sucker punch to the reader

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book for an honest review

Amber Glass returns to her childhood home many years after the prom where had given birth to a baby . She had been sent to a juvenile prison as a result because the baby died. She had gone to the prom with Joe who didn’t know she was pregnant with his baby. He didn’t really want to go with Amber that night because he was still in love with his previous girlfriend.
Joe still lives in his home town with Meredith his wife of 20 years she thinks they have no secrets from each other . However Joe has been having a clandestine affair with a much younger woman named Jordan and he also soon begins an affair of convenience with Amber Glass.
Joe is a very shallow individual and was idealized by his mother when growing up. Joe’s perfect life is fast unraveling, he’s mortgaged his house and is slowly but surely going into debt just as covid hits. He is getting tired of Jordan but she’s threatening to tell his wife and he is unable to finish the affair..
How does Joe get out of this mess in his previously perfect life. Was Amber a bad omen that once again turned Joe’s life upside down. Was Joe’s marriage to Meredith as perfect as he thought, did she know about the affairs.
This is a tangled web of deceit and lies with well written characters that are well formed but unfortunately unlikeable especially Joe . Read and enjoy 4 stars.

An unexpected pleasure - Amber Glass is a highly complex character and from the beginning to the end, you’re not entirely sure what she wants. The title made me expect a pushy parent narrative but it was much more than that. Clever, intricate and thoughtful. Thank you #netgalley and the publishers for sharing this with me.

Prom Mom is.a 3.5⭐️ rounded up to 4⭐️
Amber Glass is going to the prom, well that’s what she thought until she’s taken Ill and spends the night in a bathroom. When the police visit her the next day it is to tell her and her family that she had given birth and killed the baby. Amber hadn’t told anyone she was pregnant, not even her date Joe. She leaves town and does not return until 22 years later as her step father left her his house and some money in his will. She opens up an art gallery and who comes through her door but Joe wanting a painting for a Christmas present. Despite Amber not wanting to get involved with Joe again it does happen and covid helps them get together more. Joe is leading a double life but for how long an he do this for and what are Amber’s intentions?
This was an ok read, I didn’t really care for the characters and I thought that it went on too long without anything happening. A lot of it is day to day life, I know it’s setting the scene but it was just too long and could have been shorter making it a snappier read. The ending was good but I’m to sure it was worth the read. I did enjoy the storyline it was just the length of nothing happening I had the problem with.
I would like to thank Netgalley and Faber And Faber for this ARC I received in exchange for an honest review.

Found it hard to stay interested in this one, the characters just didn’t appeal to me. An intriguing plot line nevertheless.

this book was very slow. I am usually a big fan of slow burners but this one did not feel engaging enough to keep me hooked. I wanted to DNF this one but was grateful for the arc so pushed through but I found myself skim reading alot of the story - this one just was not made for me!

In this domestic thriller, Laura Lippman provides the reader with a compelling plot featuring perfectly imagined, unlikeable characters alongside a great premise.

'Prom Mom' is a masterclass in misdirection and intrigue. A wonderful game of cat and mouse is played out but it is, at times, difficult to tell who is which. A comment on divisions in modern-day U.S., Prom Mom is not a straight-forward thriller so much so that for much of the book, I wasn't even sure where the crime element of the novel lay.

Lippman uses the Covid pandemic to good effect but doesn't shove it down readers' throats. However, if you don't want to read about Covid and the effect it had on people, this novel is not for you.

Lippman's style of writing is engaging and the short chapters make it easy to binge. I was utterly addicted to this novel and felt that the conclusion was satisfying.

I have really enjoyed the subject matter and pace of a Laura Lippman novel. This time it was not quite there for me. Difficult to like or engage with Amber the main character, who was Prom Mom. Even less to like about Joe, who seems to attract every beautiful bright female. Not sure how Meredith remained married to Joe. The intrique underwrote the story but lacked excitement .

I don't want to rate this one either negatively or positively, because it just wasn't for me right now. I may pick it up again in the future, as the writing style was engaging and the premise is a solid thriller one for me!

I have read and enjoyed a couple of this authors other books and was hooked by the synopsis of this one but around the halfway mark I felt my interest slipping. I continued reading to its conclusion but it never fully regained my interest. An ok read but not one I would be rushing to recommend.

2.5-3 stars .

This was a great read that I very much enjoyed. I like the fact that there isn’t a huge cast of characters to keep track off, the focus is on Amber and Joe and a few main characters that their lives revolve around. These characters are a real mix, and without exception my opinons of all the main characters changed chapter by chapter. Where I started off feeling sorry for some they soon became objects of pity, or hate, and vice versa. No one was who they really seemed to be.

The twist at the end was good, and although I did guess one of the main plots it was still a good read. I enjoy the writing style, its short and keeps the story interesting, the changing viewpoints give a sense of misdirection that keeps you guessing to the end.

A very interesting premise but this book just didn't grip me as I hoped it would and it left me underwhelmed.
Thanks to Net Galley and Faber and Faber for an advance copy.

Many thanks to Net Galley and Faber & Faber Ltd for an ARC of this book in exchange for a review..
This is my first book by this author and I loved it. An addictive read, a slow burner but with lots of twists.
The story alternates between the past and present. In 1997, Amber leaves her hometown, after the incident which got her the title of Prom Mom, she returns though 22 years later, she has inherited her stepfathers home, which gives her the funds to set up a rather unique art gallery. Then there is Joe, who is as handsome as ever and has been happily married for 20 years to his glamorous perfect wife Meredith who is a plastic surgeon.
Joe, Meredith and Amber are all telling the story, initially Amber is in the background, but as the story unfolds there is a shift as she plays a major roll. All three of them tell lies, they are all playing mind games, there is blackmail, backstabbing, seduction, betrayal and murder.
The story is very cleverly woven together, Meredith seems innocent, Amber is cold and calculating, Joe seems to be living in a dream, and to complicate things has been having an affair, which he can’t seem to end.
It’s a game of cat and mouse, with a fabulous jaw dropping, very satisfying conclusion.
Lovely it and highly recommend,will definitely be reading more from this author.

2.5
I have listened to a fair amount of Laura Lippman and have found her thrillers to be decent, so I thought this was a safe choice and the idea of Prom Mom was certainly interesting (and true and sad and probably likely to happen more in the USA of today – the detail of the prom notwithstanding).

Now, it’s not that the blurb is wrong, just largely irrelevant. Yes, Amber Glass unexpectedly gave birth to a baby at the prom; yes, she’s back in town and back in touch with her prom date (Cad Dad); but literally no one else in the present timeline cares about her past! It was a disappointment because those scenes in the past were the most readable and interesting.

Instead, what you should know about this book is it is a pandemic novel. Not a thriller with a pandemic backdrop but rather all the mundane aspects of life during Covid plus affairs. It’s also a vehicle for the author to explicitly remind us that Covid precautions, not being racist and being inclusive = good, while Trump, election and Covid deniers, and the rich-poor divide = bad. It’s not even that I disagree, it just got very tiresome – especially the morally superior Meredith whose inner monologue has to justify everything she does.

I got to 75% in this book and thought: wait a minute… doesn’t Lippman usually write thrillers? I looked back at the blurb and realised that it did seem to promise something dark. However, it wasn’t until literally 90% in that this book remembered that promise… only to give one thing I wasn’t expecting and a bigger thing that was very predictable.

For all those faults (i.e. complete lack of tension, one dimensional characters, preaching and odd decisions about pacing), I was never tempted to abandon this book. I found it very easy to keep reading (because I was on holiday?) so I do hope other readers can overlook what I didn’t like and have an enjoyable time with this book.

Thank you, NetGalley, for the chance to read this ARC.

“When I was seventeen, I gave birth to a baby in a hotel bathroom while attending the prom”
So starts the story of Amber Glass, desperately trying to get away from her tabloid past, but is drawn back to the city of her youth and the prom date that destroyed everything and how she became known as the Prom Mom.
Told from three points of view, you don’t know who to trust.
The story slowly unfolds intertwining past and present.
Where does the twisted story end up and who is the real villain?
Explores the question of how well do we really know the people we love.
A brilliant domestic thriller and perfect poolside read.
Thanks @lauramlippman @faberbooks & @netgalley for the eARC

After establishing herself as terrific, award-winning voice in modern crime writing with her excellent, long-running series starring Baltimore reporter turned private eye Tess Monaghan, in recent years New York Times bestseller Laura Lippman has continually challenged herself and delighted readers and critics with a string of very different standalones. From multi-layered Wilde Lake exploring family secrets, changing smalltown mores and stories we tell ourselves, to the extraordinary, multi-narrated Lady in the Lake exploring racial tensions and many forms of bigotry in 1960s Baltimore, to 2021’s claustrophobic suspense Dream Girl, with its nod to Stephen King, Lippman’s been masterful.

Now, she plunges us into a slow-burn thriller that digs into a ‘whatever happened to?’ scenario, decades after a tabloid headlines style scandal. Amber Glass desperately wants to escape her tragic past but is compulsively drawn back to her hometown and Joe, the now-middle-aged man who was Amber’s prom date one fateful night that changed her life forever, destroying her teenage dreams.

Amber fears she’ll always wear the tabloid moniker ‘Prom Mom’ like a scarlet letter – the teenager who gave birth on Prom night then allegedly killed her newborn after her date abandoned her for another girl. So Baltimore is the last place she wants to be, until circumstances draw her home. Could she have a second chance? Regardless, she really should avoid Joe, now a successful commercial real estate developer married to a plastic surgeon, but it’s a small city, and there still seems a strange connection between them. As the world plunges into uncertainty, Amber and Joe find themselves circling each other before crossing lines – but how much will Amber sacrifice?

Lippman lures readers in and takes us on a suspenseful ride that flows so smoothly it perhaps obscures her mastery. Like watching a talented musician onstage – or perhaps a special athlete on the field of play – Lippman makes things that are difficult look so deceptively easy that we perhaps underappreciate the brilliance on show. There’s a fluidity, flow, and ease; mastery at a high level.

Prom Mom is another jewel in the crown of a modern-day Empress of the crime genre.

The premise of this book is great. Amber goes to her prom and secretly gives birth when nobody, including herself, was aware she was pregnant.

Two decades later she returns to her hometown and reconnects with the father of the baby, who is now married. Secrets unravel and we learn that not everything is as it seems on the surface.

As I say, it’s a great premise, but I felt the execution let it down. The book is slow for the majority until the end when it seems to try to wrap everything up within a couple of chapters. The ending is convoluted and unbelievable. Sadly I won’t be recommending this book, but I thank the publisher for access to the ARC.

This one was just OK bit slow for me although I didn't expect the ending and a few little twists so 3 stars

Prom mom, was a good twisted tale book but I think it would have worked much better as a novella as it was padded out in places with unnecessary passages which didn’t really add to the story, that said though the ending was worth waiting for.

During Covid it seemed to be hard for authors to know whether to refer to it or not and if so how. And even now, many authors are setting their action in 2019 or earlier so as not to have to deal with the pandemic. But there are plenty of authors who have tackled the issue and its impact on people even as the pandemic continued to rage Sarah Moss explored the lockdown in Britain in The Fell and Louise Erdrich chronicled the only lockdowns on a fictional bookshop (that might have been hers) but also the impact of the death of George Floyd in her novel The Sentence. Award winning crime author Laura Lippman has spent much of her career chronicling life in her native Baltimore so it is no surprise that her latest stand along novel Prom Mom takes us to that city during the 2020 and 2021 lockdowns (and other national events).
The book takes its name from its framing story, based on real events and one that it keeps coming back to, to ultimately devastating effect. That story is set in Baltimore in1997 and Amber finds herself on her prom night alone in a hotel room, bleeding and in pain. It will turn out that she gave birth to a premature baby which died while her date, Joe, was chasing after his ex. Amber, who will go to jail for a short time, will be forever known as the Prom Mom and her date as the Cad Dad.
But the main action of the novel starts in 2019 when Amber returns to Baltimore from New Orleans to deal with the property of her late stepfather and on the spur of the moment, it seems, decides to open an art gallery in a small shopping mall. She immediately starts cyberstalking Joe who is now a successful property trader happily married (it seems) to plastic surgeon Meredith. Of course, being a Laura Lippman novel, nothing is quite as they seem. Amber inveigles her way back into Joe’s life only to discover that Joe is having an affair with the much younger, and hard to shake, Jordan. And then the pandemic strikes and things become more complicated and simpler at the same time. Amber’s on-line businesses unexpected flourish but Joe’s investments are impacted, his secret liaisons become harder to manage and potentially hazardous to his and Meredith’s health.
Readers patience with Prom Mom will probably depend on a few things. First is how willing they are to relive the pandemic in the company of fairly well off, upper to middle class Americans. Second is how much they care about philandering Joe, who every woman seems to be throwing themselves at so that he ends up juggling three relationship, each a secret from the other two. There is not a lot of crime and not a lot of thriller here and although it does build to a dark fairly twisted ending it takes a long time to get there and it is hard to justify the journey.
Lippman is a great observer of people and that skill is clearly on show here. While Jordan is a little one note, the main trio of Amber, Joe and Meredith have interesting and sometimes conflicting inner lives. With the ongoing issues from the tragic end to Amber and Joe’s schooldays continuing to haunt their lives. But it is the minutiae, while well observed (for example, the hunt for toilet paper) that slow this narrative down and drag it into the banal. So that as a thriller this unfortunately mostly fails to thrill.