What do you do if you give birth at home, alone, to a beautiful baby girl, fall asleep, then wake up to your husband holding a baby saying you had a son? This is the dilemma facing Magnolia in Not My Baby. This novella was a good, short read with a few twists. I plan on reading more from this author.

NOT MY BABY was a quick read. It’s on the shorter side so I read it pretty fast. Two Moms gave birth on the same night in the middle of a storm. One baby lived, one baby died. The baby that lived was a girl cradled with her tired mother who fell asleep after the birth. When she wakes up, her husband is finally home and is so happy to have a son. A son? No, that’s not right. She gave birth to a daughter. Didn’t she? Why won’t anyone believe her? Is she not over the loss of her stillborn daughter last year? Is she going mad? You will have to red to find out. Thanks to Netgalley and Joffe Books for the arc of this book.

Absolutely amazing read I love Anyas books guaranteed twist at the end of every story ....million percent would reccomend !!!!!!

I started this immediately after having a little internet argument with a local crunchy mom. I am not sure if that made reading it better or worse.
Our girl is a midwife and a year ago she lost her beautiful baby in a homebirth that should have been perfect. She has not been herself since then.
A year later she gives birth alone during a storm. She feel SO empowered. The baby is born alive. She bundles the baby up and falls asleep for five hours. When she wakes up her husband is there holding the baby, except this isn't the baby she remembers giving birth to, alone, during a storm.
Like the baby is three days old and she's getting coffee with her friend, which is supposed to indicate her strength and progressiveness. But like don't we do enough as women?
Also her baby just immediately sleeps through the night, nursing is never a struggle, and she has like 10 besties willing to entertain her madness and help her. She lays him down for a nap and has a hot shower and then goes for a long walk. You know, when he's five days old.
Her baby has been stolen and replaced with the ideal infant, so perfect he may as well be fake.
Oh and side bar another young woman nearby gave birth alone that night but her baby died. Of course. The infant mortality rate in this place is astounding.
Also somehow a bunch of women are pregnant at once. I am glad I do not live there.
I can't reveal more but I will tell you I ate this up. Whether it was because I was annoyed or intrigued IDK but I must have loved it to write all of this.
Thanks for giving me a break from my election stress. Xoxox

NOT MY BABY is a fantastic read. The description was intriguing and I could not wait to dive into the story and it did not disappoint. It had plenty of twists, turns, red herrings and shocking events, I just could not put it down.

Thank you to NetGalley and Joffe Books for my ARC.

This was an entertaining, quick read. I was bothered by some small things - like the fact that she wraps the baby in a blanket right after giving birth to keep the baby warm, but a midwife would know skin contact is best. Also it seems like Mag is able to sleep all night & do whatever she wants for hours despite breastfeeding a newborn, which is not how it works. A mention of a car being black after it was said to have been red multiple times. Mag also drank a few times which wouldn't make sense to do because newborns nurse frequently & often irregularly. These things just took me out of the story a bit. It was still enjoyable overall

What a fascinating story! Definitely had the twists and turns, and was so so original! It definitely wasn't what I was expecting and I had absolutely no idea where it was going or how it was going to play out. This one had me on the edge of my seat! A really quick read but definitely worth investing in

I read 'The Midwife's Mistake' and was surprisingly disappointed as I usually love Mora's books and devour them. This revised version kept all the good stuff--mystery, intrigue, suspense, red herrings, shocking twists--and, thankfully, lost all the bad. A great read that will keep you up way past your bedtime.

This is a short but emotional story about a new mother who has been through a lot of heart ache after suffering a still birth the previous year. Magnolia, a midwife, gives birth to a little girl, alone during a storm. She awakes the following morning to find her husband holding a little boy with no one believing her when she says she gave birth to a little girl, she vows to look after him and pretend everything is fine until she finds where her little girl is. No one should ever doubt a mothers intuition. It was a great read which I had to continue in one sitting to find out what happened. I'd recommend reading.

This was a short book, but still very suspenseful! It was like watching a good Lifetime movie (which I love). I enjoyed the twist ending as well!

A very short novel but it’s an ok read . I lost interest towards the end but I’m still glad I read it . Would make a good holiday read , short and sweet

"I gave birth to a girl...so why's my husband holding a boy?"

I came across this book after reading a review for it and thought that it would be right up my alley. I love missing baby tropes, no matter the style. And given that it was just 120 pages long I thought perfect! Another one off my Netgalley shelf and towards my yearly goal which I could easily devour in a couple of hours...which I did.

So Magnolia, a midwife herself, goes into labour three weeks early in the middle of a storm. Given that she was not yet due, she had no one in attendance and, given that there was a brutal storm outside, the island on which she lived with husband Ivan was cut off from the nest of islands that make up the San Juan Islands, off the coast of Washington state. Her waters break and in the midst of contractions she calls Ivan who is at a yoga retreat on another island. But this baby is coming now.

And so the story goes...she gives birth alone, in the dark in the midst of the storm, but when she sees her newborn daughter she is elated and knows everything is going to be alright. But giving birth is a tiring business so after placing a cap she lovingly knitted on her daughter's head, she swaddles her tightly and places her in the bassinet, cleans herself up and collapses on the bed to sleep. With her hand reaching into the bassinet to lay on her daughter's chest...she will just sleep for a few minutes. Then when she wakes, it's daylight and when she reaches into the bassinet, it's empty. Then she sees Ivan cradling their child in his arms, congratulating her on a job well done and that their son is perfect. Son? No, that's not right. Magnolia knows she gave birth to a daughter. But now they have a son?

No matter how loud Magnolia cried or how much she protested, nobody believed her when she told them she gave birth to a daughter and that this child her husband has put to her breast is not her baby. It was easy to see why they questioned Magnolia's assertion, given her history. A year ago, she had a stillbirth - a daughter - and now everyone seems to think she is projecting those emotions onto her new baby, convincing herself that she had a girl when she really had a boy. Yes, it was easy to see this on the surface. But...as her husband I really think Ivan should have listened more to his wife, humoured her more even if he didn't believe her. By telling her otherwise and threatening the psychiatric facility was counterproductive.

No one believed Magnolia. And yet she is so sure...she is willing to risk everything to prove she had a baby girl and to get her daughter back.

So first and foremost, I must say my biggest gripe with this book is the names. Magnolia and Clover were bad enough, but Park and Scout? And then there were names that were more like surnames that first names...Hollis and Yardley. Next, there is a disclaimer at the beginning of the book stating that it is written using British English...and then proceeds to use words like cell phone, mom and spells labor without the U. That isn't British English. That's American English. And lastly...the editting errors. The Ford Focus couldn't even remain the same colour (with a U, thank you), switching from red to black and then it became and SUV.

That aside...this story is fast paced, taking place in the first week after Magnolia gives birth, and an incredibly quick read at just 120 pages in length. It took me a mere 3 hours to devour it and get to the bottom of the mystery. While on the one hand you are rooting for Magnolia, on the other you question if she is just an unreliable narrator, convinced she gave birth to a girl.

A thoroughly entertaining read that had me questioning in parts despite fully backing Magnolia all the way. Recommended.

I would like to thank #AnyaMora, #Netgalley and #JoffeBooks for an ARC of #NotMyBaby in exchange for an honest review.

This review appears on my blog at https://stinathebookaholic.blogspot.com/.

This was a shorter book, but a good read. The only annoying part was the editing errors for the Ford Focus that kept changing from red to black and back again. Pick a color and stick to it. Everything about the story was very predictable for me except for the why behind the baby disappearing. Who and when were obvious to me. But it was still a good psychological thriller. Nothing better than a mother's instinct.

When I read the blurb I was so excited to be accepted, Not My Baby was such a great read that kept me wanting to keep reading.

The blurb for this book intrigued me and so I requested a copy to review from NetGalley.

The novel is based around the concept of a confused new mother, suffering from a previous still birth believing the cold in her arms is not hers. You find yourself wondering if she is confused or if something sinister has happened.

The novel is fairly short and this is good as I think anything more and the reader would lose interest. I did find the resolution came quite quick and took me by surprise but I feel that is good in a story. I’d recommend reading.

Oh. My. Gosh!! I read this book in just a couple hours. Before I knew it, I’d read ten chapters and it was 1AM. I had to force myself to get some sleep and then picked it right up a matter of hours later!
Truly captivating! Captures your attention from page 1. Very suspenseful, too! I thought I had it all figured out. I did not. I was not happy.
I’m not telling anyone anything about it. Get a copy for yourself!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this advanced copy. Wow! When Magnolia had to give birth by herself, she was a little confident, she is a midwife. She kisses her baby girl and falls asleep. When she wakes up hours later, her husband is home and hands her a baby boy. She knows that she had a girl. No one believes her but she is determined to find out the truth. This book was short but good.

This is a very a very short novel which is somewhat lacking due to its brevity. That said, I did enjoy it and wondered how the twist would play out.

A short, intense and well-written thriller, which delivers emotional wrench in spades!

We can question lots of things, but not a mother, who knows her baby, beyond all doubt.

When midwife Magnolia, isolated in a huge storm gives birth alone to her baby girl, she wraps her up and falls asleep. When her husband gets home and is delighted to meet his new baby son, Magnolia freezes. Who switched the babies? Why does nobody believe her? I literally wanted to jump into the book, give her a hug and join the search.

I was so involved in this story, feeling Magnolia's desperate anguish, and my heart was breaking for her as she was forced to pretend everything was normal, while she searched for her baby, and the baby boy's mother.

4 ⭐️ Thanks to Netgalley, Anya Mora and Joffe for an ARC in return for an honest review.

Not My Baby - Anya Mora

I received this as an ARC for NetGalley. It's a short story and only around 150 pages.

I did get my hooked, but the twist was predictable and I knew how it was going to pan out. There are a few mental health mentions in there, and the word 'crazy' is thrown around a lot. I would also recommend a trigger warning for child loss in there - both infant and adult.

An enjoyable read, but not overly memorable. 2.5/5 from me.