This is the story of Anne Marie, a hard-working waitress and single mom, and her bad seed and extremely ungrateful teenage son Dave. Dave finally does something truly awful and someone starts blackmailing him and his mother goes to great lengths to protect her son.

This is a difficult book to review because while the book was fast paced and I found that I couldn't stop reading until I got to the end, I also was angry throughout the entire book with both Dave and Ann Marie because neither of them had any redeeming qualities. Dave was a total psychopath and Ann Marie was a complete doormat and somewhat of a psychopath herself. Even the lesser characters were pretty unlikeable. I felt like the story had potential but it's just difficult to really love a book where you can't really root for anyone because everyone is so terrible. I also guessed the "twists" which I very rarely do with a truly well written thriller.

Since I did like the author's writing style, I would definitely like to read another book by Emily Shiner.

Thank you to Inkubator Books and Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review. The publication date is December 3, 2023.

A quick read to get your blood pumping. Fast paced and the action starts in the first few pages.
How far would you go to protect your child? The Waitress is more than a waitress, but a mom and bad ass!
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

Coming December 2023.

Book Title: The Waitress
Author: Emily Shiner
Publisher: Inkubator Books
Genre: Mystery Thriller
Pub Date: December 3, 2023
My Rating: 3.4 Stars
Pages:

Anne Marie Kerns describes herself as having a terrible little house, a terrible little job and a terrible Camry. However, she is doing everything she can to make sure her sixteen year old son Dave turns out like her and not his father.
Anne Marie’s ‘terrible little job’ is working long hours as a waitress at a diner When she is not at work she has her hands full with her Dave. He won’t listen to her plea to stop making bad choices. He is guilty of drinking, fighting, and cheating on tests and now threatens a teacher.
. When an accident happened on her street the evening her son took her ‘terrible Camry’ out, Police Office Waddell stops her ‘terrible little house’ to question if she’s knows anything about the accident. He notices and makes a comment about all the dents on her Camry. Anne Marie thinks to herself that although she is aware of the dents she is not sure if there is or isn’t a new one

Dave confesses to his mother than he is guilty of the accident and is fearful of being found out as someone is blackmailing him claiming they saw what he did.
Anne Marie helps him with the blackmailer’s demand however not all that long after there is another demand.
Dave knows the blackmailer isn’t going to back down and will continue perhaps stop and then come back and at a later time with an ever higher demand.
Dave tells his mother he has a plan. Anne Marie is not willing to help with his plan.
Anne Marie knows she has to protect her son.

Soon Dave is the 'model son', ~ cooking, helping around the house even doing laundry; of course, all of this is a scheme to get his mom to do what he wants.
Anne Marie knows he is being a model son for a reason and Blackmailer is doing what she has been trying to do for years.

The rest of the story is more than crazy!.

At first I am quietly telling Anne Marie that she and her son need professional help for son as well as herself! I continue to roll my eyes as well as shake my head at Anne Marie and decided this is supposed to be a fictional story to enjoy.

(However I fear that one day in the near future Dave will enters the diner with an assault weapon and kill his mother and injury innocent people. I only hope Officer Waddell is nearby to take him down.)

This is my third Emily Shiner. I read and enjoyed "The Secret Wife". I also read "he Wife in the Photo" and like Anne Marie I kept yelling at Ariel one of the main characters as she just wasn't making a lot of sense to me.

Want to thank NetGalley and Inkubator Books for this early eGalley.
Publishing Release Date scheduled for December 3, 2023.

This book offered a lot of promise and hooked me early on. A mum who will do anything for her son. Sadly it didn’t live up to the promise and I just started to really dislike the characters along with a predictable outcome at the end. Sorry to say I couldn’t wait to get this one finished.

In "The Waitress" by Emily Shiner, the promise of a thrilling narrative is marred by glaring shortcomings. The characters, unfortunately, remain one-dimensional and underdeveloped, failing to evoke empathy or interest. The storyline, rather than delivering suspense, veers into the realm of implausibility, making it challenging to fully engage with the plot. Shiner's writing style, characterized by its amateurish quality, further detracts from the overall experience. While the premise hints at suspense, the lack of nuanced characters and the unrealistic narrative diminish the impact of what could have been a compelling thriller. Unfortunately, "The Waitress" falls short of its potential.

Special thanks to Net Gallery for giving me the opportunity to read and review a pre-released copy of this book.

This book is about a single mom and her son and the lengths she will go to protect him. This is a very fast paced book. Very suspenseful. The mother about drove me insane at what all she’d do for him. This was a 5 star read for me all the way through but I had to give it a 4 star because I didn’t much care for how it ended. I can’t really explain without spoilers but this is still a twisty and fun read.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC (Advance Reader Copy) for The Waitress by Emily Shiner. Well Ms. Shiner has done it again. Another good book by her. The main character, Anne Marie had me shaking my head! I understand a mother's love for her child, but... I won't say anything more about that! Read to see what I mean. This book was very fast paced and it kept me intrigued to see what would happen. I would definitely recommend this book to others and I am eager to read my next Emily Shiner book. I gave this book a 4 star rating.

A mother's love knows no boundaries. Anne Marie will do anything for her son but how far will she go when she learns what he's done? A quick read with plenty of suspense and action.

Thanks NetGalley for the ARC!

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. I would give it 2.5 stars. It was a very quick read and there was a twist at the end, which accounted for the extra half point. However, I had a very hard time with the two main characters, one of whom was, for lack of a better word, a sociopath, and the other who was the one who enabled him and was a doormat. While the underlying question which could have served as a wonderful anchor to a book was how far would a parent go to protect their child, I don't think that a psychological thriller is the kind of genre to tackle something that deep. The events ended up not really being able to explore that and were predictable (and I am not that good at that but I knew what was going to happen each time except for the twist at the end).

Thank you to NetGalley, the Publishers, and Emily Shiner for an ARC of The Waitress. This is about a single mom and her son and the lengths she will go to protect him. This book really put her lengths to a test! I don’t fault the writer at all, but the characters were completely insufferable (I.e. there has to be stopping point to your spoiled son), but I couldn’t put the book down. I wouldn’t call them so much as “twists”, but all the events that happened were apparent. It did still make the story fun seeing everything play out, but I wished there was a jaw dropping end. This was my first book of Emily’s and I will for sure give another one a chance!

This is a story about a single mother and the lengths she will go in order to protect her son, from himself and others.

As a single mother to two boys myself, gosh this made me uncomfortable because I can truthfully relate to the protagonist in this story so much, as I’m sure many parents will be able to. This book has everything you could want in a psychological thriller; it’s incredibly thought provoking, shocking and painfully relatable.

What wouldn’t you do to protect your babies?

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and definitely look forward to reading more from this author!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me to read this ARC.

This book highlights the lengths that a mother will go to protect her children regardless of the high stakes involved. This book was an interesting read but a bit of a predictable ending which not this authors usual style. Regardless, still highly recommend reading.

This story is about a mother who goes to any lengths to protect her son despite his deeds. I enjoyed the beginning but the rest of the story was predictable and dragged on. Thank you to Netgalley and Inkubater books for the arc read in exchange for my honest review.

I really enjoy this authors books, The Waitress is a quick read but the plot just seemed to fall flat. The mother,, Anne Marie will do anything for her troubled son Dave. She seems to be a very weak character and her son Dave controls her. She drove me nuts but I did like the book. Kinda have mixed feelings on this one. Great for a quick entertaining read.. Thank you to NetGalley, Emily Shiner and Inkubator Books for the opportunity to read and review this ARC. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Try his was quick paced thriller that I finished in a day. Anne Marie would do anything to protect her teenage son. How far will she go to protect him? This is the premise of this book. Loved it!

You can’t help but read this quickly to find out what Anne Marie does next. You find yourself questioning what decisions she might make in order to protect her son. It’s a novel that will promote a lot of discussion in a book group I think! How far would you go to protect your family?

I guessed some of the twists but it was still a brilliant read and a page turner and I found myself reading on to find out what would happen next.

Anne Marie is a single mom and waitress who struggles to make ends meet. To add to her suffering, her teenage son, Dave, is out of control. But no matter what he does, to Anne, nothing is ever his fault, ever! She believes if only Dave would behave a little better, life would be sunshine and roses. And then suddenly, as if her prayers were answered, Dave starts acting like the boy that his mother wants him to be. And that's not because he turned into a new leaf, but because he has done something terrible and someone is blackmailing him. He needs his Mom to help him.
When Anne discovers his secret, she becomes desperate to protect him and somehow stop the blackmailer. But how far will she go to save her only child?
It was a quick and easy read. But that doesn't mean the characters are well-rounded and likeable. I got really tired of listening to Anne, whining about how much she loved her son.
We all love our kids to the moon and back but Anne being ridiculously devoted to her son doesn't make sense at all, especially since he obviously comes off as a psychopath. I mean, how many red flags could you ignore? It was hard to sympathize with her when all she was doing was to enable her son's actions.
The plotline revolving around the concept of parental love and commitment made this book an interesting read. But I felt like the author took it to the extreme that the narrative evolved into something unbelievable.
However, the ending was a bit of a shock. Although, slightly predictable, I thoroughly enjoy the final quarter of the book. If you enjoy quick and easy reads with a few twists and turns peppered along the way, you might be pleased with reading this one.
Thanks to #Netgalley and #Inkubatorbooks for providing me a free ARC copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Very quick and easy read. I felt like the characters and story could’ve used more development, and the book felt very rushed. I didn’t like the characters at all… it got annoying.

Anne Marie would do anything for her son David… And I mean anything! She’s been a single mother ever since his birth and she loves him completely nothings ever his fault and if he would just be a little bit better everything would be all right. Unfortunately when he does start acting like the boy she wants him to it’s only because he’s done something terrible and it’s not that he feels bad it’s only because someone is blackmailing him. When David finally becomes clean with Anne Marie and they try to come up with solutions the ones David comes up with our astounding to Anne Me but she begs for him to let her take care of it and so what first he does. This is win she goes to pay the blackmailer and notices she knows who it is. Unfortunately David has one more secret to reveal to his mom it’s about his bad influence of a friend Jeremy for years and Marie has tried to influence her son and get him to do the right thing before it’s over she will prove just how committed to being a good mom she is. Because I read so many thrillers it is a rare day that I am left astounded but I won’t lie I almost DNF this book had it not been so good I would have because I got so tired of listening to a Anne-Marie in her whining about how much she loved her son but alas I stuck with it and I am glad I did this book was one crazy piece of work it seems like Emily Shriner always comes up with a new way to shock me and with this book The Waitress she definitely did. Most thriller books it’s the ending that really get you but with this book the author has a shocking whole last third of the book the epilogue it’s just the cherry on top. Bear some books that have you rolling your eyes but with this book the plot is so good the eye rolling is easy to overlook. I want to think the author incubator books and the Galley for my free arc copy please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

Is the son in this book violent, enabled, entitled, all three? I mean there isn't much there. If this is the life these people live, it's very sad. Go to work. Beg people not to blame your son, repeat. The ending was a little shocking, but overall, it just seemed like one big loop over and over every day. She has def written better.