Lissy is scared. She's hiding something from us. Someone leaves dead animals outside her house. Someone knows her past and wants to scare her. Her daughter Rosie has been suspended from school for the second time. Life is not easy for this character. I absolutely wanted to know the truth.


 Erica was vengeful. She wants to avenge her sister. Will she succeed? She also fights with her illness and to save her marriage. I secretly hoped that she would overcome all the difficulties in her life.


 Beverly also plots revenge against a certain person. Someone murdered two children in the past. A three-year-old and a six-year-old had a right to live. Someone took that away from them. Crimes have no statute of limitations. Someone has to pay for it.

 Rupert is Lissa's neighbour, is he the one scaring her? He's always there when something happens. Can Lissy trust him? Will she have to move again?

 A very good thriller. Keeps you in suspense from the first page to the last.

 One of the heroes received the following letter:


 "(...) Thought you could leave it all behind you? Think again. I know your every move, you murderous, old monster. I am watching you. ... (...)"


 Scary truth. One of the characters is mentally ill. I was very scared for her and what she might do. She is literally insane.


 Brilliant thriller. I still can't get over it to this day. Incredible action, challenging storyline and diverse characters. All of this makes this book impossible to put down on the shelf. I found some plot twists here that shocked me. I wasn't expecting them.

 If you like strong psychological thrillers, be sure to read "The other mother" by J.A. Baker.

I loved how this book bounced between the different narratives. It kept me guessing, and the ending was definitely a surprise! I love when a book can accomplish that! Overall, I'd recommend this great thriller/mystery to anyone! Thanks so much for the advance copy, NetGalley!

This wouldn’t open on my kindle, I’m really interested in reading it but it just wouldn’t open.
Hopefully I can get it read when I get the physical form.

*4.5 Stars*

Copy kindly received via NetGalley for an honest review.

A very good read and great characters. You had to feel for Lizzy and Rosie and what they went through. I liked the ending. Would recommend.

At first I had trouble getting into this book. It was a little hard to follow in the beginning. But once I dived in, I needed to know more!
Followed by her past and desperate to keep her daughter safe, Lissy finds herself unable to hide from it. Lissy grew up in an abusive alcoholic home. As a child she is accused of murder. Twice. Always moving and changing her daughters schools, Lissy finds the past has caught up with her. Forced to tell her daughter about her past. But will the truth finally come out?

Unfortunately I did not enjoy The Other Mother. I twas just too slow and confusing for me to really get into.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my ARC.

The other mother by J A Baker was another brilliant book. It was a brilliant book that had me gripped from the beginning till the end with a great story line that made it a great book for you coming holidays or a day relaxing in your garden etc. I really enjoyed it.

Big thank you to Netgalley and Boldwood Books for supplying a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to Boldwood and NetGalley for the ARC. Quick read. Kept me guessing. Writing was well done. Three stars.

This is the second book I’ve read from this author. I did enjoy it - it is a slow burner and a bit confusing in the beginning between 5 POV’s which turns out to be just 3. I did struggle to keep up and had to rely on my notes to follow along.

Good story, complex characters and gains good pace towards the end. 3⭐️ read for me. Will absolutely read more from this author

I really struggled with this narrative. I thought the writing style was too prolonged and I did not get a sense of any tension or suspense. Furthermore, I found the characters all-too familiar and grappled with keeping the different identities separate.

There are some really dark moments in this story and Baker opens the story with a gripping and fraught scene. Moving in to the past, these chapters follow ‘Child A’ and ‘Child B’. It is only later in the story that it becomes clear whose identity these children belong to and how this shapes the present. These past timeframes were incredibly chilling and made for difficult reading.

In the present, the story is spread across three women and I felt these protagonists were too similar. They had a lot in common with one another and their circumstances had too many parallels. Whilst I started to gradually understand these women and their motives, it took a long time for me to properly identify them. It wasn’t until nearly halfway through the novel that I got to grips with this and by then my attention was starting to wane.

The ending was quite a surprise for me and not one I had anticipated. I liked how the storylines came together to merge until an (almost) thrilling conclusion. The way that the story is structured meant that Baker has revealed quite a lot of the answers; it was a bit of a task to not judge the characters for their more questionable actions. Despite this, I enjoyed how this ending was a bit of a revelation and wondered if Baker could have done more with the final chapter, perhaps adding a more sinister tone.

Overall, this is quite a dark thriller that felt convoluted and confusing. I think the writer would have benefitted from not introducing so many characters so soon at the start of the story. This would have helped me connect with the narrative and allowed me to immerse myself into it. As it stands, it felt quite a hard slog to get through and not one that was particularly suspenseful.

With thanks to Boldwood books and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Other Mother by J A Baker was a great page-turner.
This was an easy, entertaining read, I really enjoyed this and found myself absorbed in the story.
A good solid story, with intriguing and well developed characters.
I also enjoyed the storyline. It was really fun and suspenseful.
A great psychological thriller with plenty of suspense to keep you entertained.

"I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own."

Thank You NetGalley and Boldwood Books for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

This was originally published in 2017 and re released in May 2023. In my humble opinion, I'm not sure it was worth republishing, but this was my first by this author. I do like multiple POV'S but this was way too confusing and by the time it made sense, I was not invested. While I did finish, my lost interest did not allow me to fully enjoy or care about the ending once the story picked up and twisted.

I will try another by this author to give his writing another shot and see if it was the book or his writing style for me.

Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my review.

This book was first published in 2017 and is now being republished by Boldwood Books.
The blurb says - three troubled women, one deadly secret.
At the beginning there are many narratives which is quite hard to follow and the story seemed very slow with not a lot happening. Once it got to halfway that changed and the book became a real page turner. The slow start has affected my overall rating.
I have read a book by this author before and I intend to read more.
Thanks to netgalley and the publishers for this advance read.

A good book with a vast array of characters to get to grips with. Lots to get your head around and keep you guessing.

The Other Mother
By J.A. Baker
Pub Date: May 29, 2023
Bloodhound
Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
It was originally published in 2017.
Too many characters for me to keep track of, I also had difficulty keeping up with all the dates and times on each chapter.
Once I got into the book this improved. Not the book for me.
3 stars

The Other Mother
by J A Baker
Pub Date: 29 May 2023

At first it was a struggle staying with this book, I had issues keeping all the characters straight. But about half way through the story I was glad I did. The second half was so much better! It also had a surprise ending I didn't see coming.

Synopsis:
Lissy and her daughter, Rosie, live a quiet life and keep themselves to themselves. But when shocking events at Rosie’s school are revealed, their peaceful existence is shattered.

Meanwhile, middle-aged women Erica and Beverley appear to have perfect lives, but behind closed doors, things are not all as they seem.

All three women are tied together by a terrible secret from their past – the murder of a child. And one of the women is to blame.

But is the person responsible the same person who was blamed all those years ago?

As the truth slowly begins to surface, it becomes clear that one of the women has revenge in their sights....

Thanks to #Netgalley and the publisher, #BoldwoodBooks for the opportunity to read an ARC of #TheOtherMother.

This was incredibly sad and weird. Do we forgive child killers if they were children themselves? In America- Only if they used a gun, apparently.
Anyway, I think people who aren't directly connected forget, unless they are into the true crime forums. They usually don't go looking for the killers 20 years later.
What would you do though if one of these people moved to your neighborhood?
What would you do if you found out your mom had killed a child?
What if they were innocent after all?
I loved how much this made me think!
I love the reveal towards the end! ARGH! It was so good!

This did turn out to be a decent enough book but it just wasn't for me. It's very character based, and omg are there a lot of characters! It flet like there were a dozen povs, all a bit vague and dull, none of whom I really cared about or were interested in. Once you get everyone figured out then you can move forward a bit but I just felt it all dragged a bit. Personally I prefer move twists, more tension, more things actually happening so I'm sure that fans of character based thrillers will love it though. There are certainly plenty of characters to choose from in this story

I’m afraid this just wasn’t a ‘wow’ book for me.
My first problem with it was the now hackneyed (in my opinion) literary device of having a flash-forward chapter as a prologue. Plenty of readers seem to enjoy them, I find they take away any subtlety and just shriek “This is a thriller!! Something thrilling is happening and you don’t understand it yet!!”
I initially found it confusing understanding the difference between child A and B and the characters mentioned by name but once I’d started to get used to who was who I started to enjoy it. For the majority of the novel I did enjoy reading it but much the same was as you can enjoy breakfast cereal. There just wasn’t anything new, exciting or unusual there for me. I figured out pretty much every plot twist but one and when that one was revealed it was more of a ‘yes of course’ realisation than a ‘NO WAY!! Revelation’

I’m sure plenty of domestic noir readers will love this book, sadly it just wasn’t for me.

Rosie and her mother Lissy live a fairly quiet life in Yorkshire. That is, until events at Rosie's school shatter their peaceful existence. Lissy has always been quiet about her past but that might have to change since the past has come back to haunt her. Lissy has a dark past that ties her to two middle-aged women, Erica and Beverley. A child was murdered when they were younger and one of these was to blame.

This book had such an interesting plotline. The characters were rich and complicated and I liked seeing how they all tied together. However, I felt there were way too many points of view and it did not really work for me in this book. I also felt like it took a while to be resolved even though the book was pretty short.

Thank you NetGalley for the copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.