I have been reading Casey Kelleher book since she started and can honestly say I am a fan and usually absolutely love her books. This book was not a bad book, I just felt it wasn't for me. Lately Casey Kelleher has been writing a variety of different books and I love that she is expanding out from the gangland type books she may be better known for. For me this book although very good in the sense the writing was just as great as other books, I didn't quite love it as much as others of hers I have read.

I have been reading and reviewing for many years so don't want to go over the storyline in the review but I will say the characters for me were not that likeable. Jenna the main character just seemed so reckless and standoffish that I couldn't help feeling unbothered by what may happen to her. The story is centered around Jenna covering attacks on women and her undercover work within the incel community. At the same time a woman 'safely surrenders' her baby at a fire station and the news run stories on this which tie in to Jenna's current work.

Overall it was well paced and to be fair I didn't see the ending coming (well maybe the chapter before it happened) which is a bonus, but there was just no real connection for me to anybody in this book. A shame for me as I love her books but for me this was just middle of the road...

Wow this story was one hell of a read!!!! It had me captivated from the very first page!! Well worth reading!!!

The Missing Mother by Casey Kelleher is about a journalist working two stories. The book itself was a fast read and it keeps you engaged throughout. I was a little disappointed with the ending. While it would not be my go to, I would recommend it to readers that enjoy thrillers.

Well she’s done it again! This book is phenomenal! I have no idea how she does it, I am just in awe at the talent of Casey Kelleher.

This is an author who never disappoints! The Missing Mother is gripping and completely addictive. Everything about this has been unique and original. I haven’t read anything like this previously.

Evie has a baby, only to keep her baby safe, she deposits her in a safe deposit box. This is where Jenna, a reporter becomes involved. Only Jenna’s investigation leads her to places she didn’t expect.

This book has had me hooked. I’ve devoured this in just one sitting with no regrets. Kelleher is brilliant and an expert in masterful storytelling. There is tension, suspense and twists that have you suspecting everyone.

I loved how Evie, Jenna and Kirsten are strong female characters that you can’t help but like. I’ve definitely been suspicious of all the men at one point or another. However, I have been left speechless by this gem.

This book has been unpredictable, perfectly placed and plotted. Everything about this has been a brilliant read. There is nothing negative I can say about this book.

I’ve read most of this author’s books and I can safely say, they get better and better. I have adored this from beginning to end. This is a brilliant read.

I have no hesitation in recommending this book.

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Wow. Where do I start with this book?

Firstly it has some uncomfortable scenes so if you can be sensitive to things you may want to check the content warning on this book. I’m not adding here as could come across as a spoiler.

However, those scenes are written so expertly, with sensitivity and compassion. It is a book that really opens your eyes to what is happening all around us and really makes you think twice and analyse both our safety and vulnerability.

The character development is brilliant and really brings them alive. You can’t help but want to know what happens to baby Holly and her mother.

This book also brings familiarity too. A dark edge to the unique storylines that are current in society and of course those twists most are unlikely to guess.

Another fabulous novel by Casey Kelleher! Bring on the next!

What a fabulous start to a book!
The book begins with a new mother giving her baby up at a safe haven, a new scheme called Safely Surrendered. I loved this dystopian idea, and it hooked me straight away. It was unexpected from a psychological thriller, and made a refreshing change!
As the book plays out, there are many twists and I couldn't put it down for the entire book, reading it in 2 sittings.
I loved it all.

I loved the first book I read from this author, but honestly, this book did not did it.
It had too many descriptions, I got tired so easily from reading the book.

This was so good, it was a tense and suspenseful thriller that kept me on the edge of my seats from start to finish. With its gripping storyline and well-drawn characters, this novel is sure to leave a lasting impression.

When a frightened woman leaves her new born baby in the Safe Baby Box at the local fire station, investigative journalist, Jenna, is tipped off. This is a new charity scheme that is supposed to be completely anonymous & placing no blame. However, Jenna was abandoned as a baby & can't bear the thought that this child might grow up with the questions she has had all her life. Her boss, Liam, is keen to get as many readers as possible & lets her run with it. She had also been investigating the world of the 'incel' This leads her into a murky world & puts her in danger.

The story is told from various points of view, but mostly by Jenna. I really didn't take to her at all. I thought she was incapable of thinking about anyone but herself. I also guessed the 'baddie' Not one of my favourite reads! Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this book.

Lived the storyline of this and although there was a twisted I guessed towards the end who it was although Caey nearly had ne thinking it was someone else.

This had sat on my shelf for a while, after reading a chapter or two. I read some other books, and in the spirit of reducing my huge backlog, I picked it up and started it again.
Sadly, this meant that dinner was a take away, the laundry didn’t get done and I didn’t really communicate with my family! Literally could not put it down!! I did guess some of what was going on, but some if it blew me away!
A real rollercoaster - lots of triggering subjects, but they were approached with sensitivity and were important to the story!
At least 10 stars out of 5!!

Another excellent read by Casey Kelleher. Right from the start I was hooked and the storyline was excellent. Plenty of twists and turns with one in particular having me gasping out loud. I loved this one.

The Missing Mother is a great story. It has an intriguing storyline which gripped me so much I could not put it down. It had many shocking twists and turns and I absolutely loved it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for my ARC.

This is a book about a baby that’s left at a fire station and a journalist looking for her mother. The book is written with the characters having their own chapters telling the story from their point of view. There’s a lot of disturbing things going on including date rape and an incel on the dark web. It has a big twist towards the end which you don’t see coming. Once I got into it I enjoyed it and didn’t see the ending coming.

I finally got around to this book and i did enjoy reading it the story and characters bring the book alive for the reader and book lovers will love it.

Publication Date - 5th February 2024
📕📕📕📕📕📕📕📕📕📕📕📕📕📕📕📚 REVIEW 📚 Jenna is a newspaper reporter and she gets an urgent phone call, after a heavy night out!a baby has been left in the New Safe Haven Box. This is for people who want to give up their babies but this means they do it in a much more safer way for the baby and the parent. This story means a lot to Jemma. She was abandoned as a baby, so it’s very close to her heart. She also has some work/personal stuff to deal with at the moment as well. Possibly putting herself in danger! Casey is one of my favourite authors (yes I have a list) 🤣🤦🏽‍♀️. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but this book felt slightly different to her others but I loved it! I was up to silly hours trying to finish it!❤️
Description ~
I place my tiny, newborn baby in the box. A
“safe haven”, they call it, for unwanted babies.
She’ll be warm, someone will find her soon.
She’ll be cared for. But not by me. I will always want her, but I can never be her mother. And she can never know why.
Jenna has never truly known who she is or where she came from. Abandoned as a baby, she grew up with a caring adopted family, and never felt the need to know more about her birth parents. Until one night, nearly thirty years later, when she sees a desperate young woman tearfully kiss her little baby, put it gently down in a safe haven box, and walk away.
In that moment, Jennas mind starts to race. Who could abandon their child like that, and why? She may never find her own parents, but Jenna is determined to uncover the truth behind this baby’s missing mother.
Because Jenna has a terrible feeling that she knows who the mother is, and what happened... #caseykelleher #likes #like #follow #likeforlikes #love #instagood #instagram #followforfollowback #followme #photooftheday #photography #bhfyp #instalike #l #instadaily #likeforfollow #picoftheday #fashion #beautiful #me #followers #smile #likeforlike #myself #followback #f #comment #followforfollow #likesforlikes

The Missing Mother by Casey Kelleher is a gripping psychological thriller with plenty of twists, turns, shocks and surprises throughout. The story begins as a newborn baby is left at a local fire station in a ‘safe haven box’, a new charity run initiative that grants anonymity to the new mother. The firefighter who finds the newborn baby girl calls in young journalist Jenna as he’s worried that the young woman who left her baby may need help.

But for Jenna this case feels personal as she was also abandoned as a baby. Determined to uncover the truth behind the missing mother and why she abandoned her daughter, Jenna finds herself drawn deeper and deeper into the mystery until she uncovers something far more dangerous than she could ever have imagined…

The Missing Mother is a fast paced and addictive psychological thriller that once started I found impossible to put down. Casey Kelleher’s writing is top notch as she cleverly draws the threads of the story together, leading to a thrilling conclusion that I can honestly say took me completely by surprise.

The Missing Mother by Casey Kelleher is a thrilling page turner of a read and is one that I would highly recommend.

BLOG TOUR REVIEW


Review for 'The Babysitter's Secret' by Casey Kelleher.

Read and reviewed via NetGalley for Casey Kelleher, Bookouture publishers and Bookouture anonymous

Publication date 5th February 2024.

This is the sixth book I have read by this author. I have previously read 'No Going Back', 'No Fear','The babysitter's Secret', 'Only Child' and 'I'll Never Tell'. I would highly recommend them all!

This novel consists of 48 chapters. The chapters are short to medium in length so easy to read 'just one more chapter' before bed...OK, I know yeah right, but still just in case!

'The Missing Mother' discusses some topics that may upset some readers or may not be suitable for others. I like to point this out ahead of time in my reviews so you can judge if this book is for you or not. In this book Casey discusses/includes rape, spiking of drinks and sexual assault.


Wow!!!! What another absolute success Casey!! Absolutely LOVED it!!! Another very well written action packed psychological thriller that just kept on giving. The descriptions were excellent and the setting perfect for the storyline. The synopsis and cover worked well with the plot.

Yet again Casey absolutely smashes it out of the ball park!!! I mean seriously how does she does It every single time!!! The storyline was absolutely ram packed with hair raising action which kept me turning the pages while on the edge of my seat waiting to find out what happened next. The book was filled secrets, heartache, shock, suspense, drama, tension and twists to keep you on your toes. It was also very realistic and would make an interesting and spine tingling movie if done right. This is one of those books that, as a mother myself, I found hard to read at times. In this book we meet Jenna who is a local reporter who has been tipped off about a baby left at a safe box at a fire station after a dramatic night of her own. Jenna is determined to get to the bottom of the story of baby 'Holly' and her mother after she was left with a note stating she needed to be kept safe. Jenna is also trying to work out what happened to her after a work night out ended up with her smashing her own window and blacking out on the kitchen floor. Jenna thinks she had too much to drink but realises she may have been spiked by an incel she was keeping tabs on after he had boasted about injecting women in bars and abusing them. Jenna discovered this on an incel group where men boast of their 'conquests' of date raping and assaulting women. Incel is a term closely associated with an online subculture of people who define themselves as unable to get a romantic or sexual partner despite desiring one. Evie is the mother who placed her baby in the Safe Box thinking that once she had done this she and the baby would be safe and not spoken about again. With multiple storylines and discovering what is going on from multiple protagonists this is a book that will keep you hooked from the shocking start to the mind-blowing end. If you want to find out the answers to the above then what are you waiting for? Grab your copy of The Missing Mother today!!! I never would have guessed who was behind everything and what was going on. I thought I had it worked out and then BOOM came the huge twist!!! Nothing worse than guessing who did what when your not even half way through a book but there's no worry of that here. This book had me completely hooked and I devoured it in one sitting so make sure you clear your schedules before even taking a peek! What an absolute shocker!!! The ending absolutely blew my mind!!! I was not expecting that AT ALL!! If your looking for a fast paced and gritty suspense packed book with an explosive ending then you are in the right place!!! An absolutely unputdownable addictive page turner!!. Needless to say this would make an absolutely epic movie!!!

Clear your schedules before you even turn a single page on this epic psychological thriller as you will not be able to put it down!!

This is one of those books where it is extremely difficult to say much about the characters without giving any of the storyline. The storyline is very character driven and the chapters are from the perspectives of journalist Jenna, Evie who is the mum who had to give her baby up and 'Him', an unknown pale protagonist. Casey's fantastic evocative descriptions ensured I felt everything that each of the characters were feeling which had my heart pounding along with theirs. The descriptions made me feel I was standing right next to them with them coming to life beside me in the storyline. My heart went out to both Jenna and Evie for a variety of reasons and as a mum myself my heart was breaking at the thought of being in a position where I would have to give any of my children up. Evie has a lot of self depravation as well as extreme fear and anxiety and it is this fear that grips you during her chapters along with Jenna's determination, fear and anxiety. All I will say about 'Him' is that I absolutely hated him and loathed him as much as I was rooting for Evie and Jenna. I was absolutely mind blown when his character was revealed as I would never have seen that coming!!! Regardless of how I felt about the characters they each played their part perfectly bringing out each and every one of your emotions throughout this spine tingling, nail biting page turner!!

Yet again another MASSIVE congratulations to Casey on yet another successful novel. You managed to have my heart racing and had me on the edge of my seat throughout! I loved every part of it and was sad to see it come to an end. I hope your busy working on the next book!! This is exactly why you are one of my favourite authors!!

Make sure you read to the very end of the book to read the first chapter of Casey's absolutely addictive 'I'll Never Tell' which is another explosive page turner and one I have read myself and would highly recommend!!

Overall another fantastic, action packed, page turning, breathtaking must read with an explosive ending by the fantastic Casey!!!

313 pages.

This book is just 99p to purchase on kindle, free with kindle unlimited and £8.99 in paperback via Amazon at time of review, which I think is an absolute bargain for this book!!!

Rated 5 /5 (I LOVED it ) on Goodreads, Instagram, Amazon UK and Amazon US and on over 30 Facebook pages plus my blog on Facebook.

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With a workload that's gone manic in the day job, and having to try and arrange some home improvement works when everyone seems to be trying to do something a bit different to what I have asked for, it's fair to say that life is fairly full of stress at the moment.

I say this not for sympathy – I’m well aware that this is a first world problem which, in many respects, I’m fortunate to have – but as an explanation of why reading is hard right now. The last two books I picked up, I had to put down again – with apologies to my local book club in the first instance and to the author, to whom I had promised a review prior to his publication day, in the second. Because whilst both seemed to be perfectly good books, each of them demanded more attention and more concentration than I felt able to give.

So it says something about The Missing Mother by Casey Kelleher that I was able to effortlessly devour it in two sittings. Although it would have been better still if I hadn't read the blurb first. Perhaps being a bit stressed had left me in a tetchy mood, but I didn’t have to get far into the book before starting to feel a bit irritated. Because the blurb describes something that the book itself doesn’t include. I suspect that this isn’t the author’s fault, because I’m aware that Bookouture authors are not normally responsible for the covers and blurbs of their books. But I have to say that this is happening too often. And it’s most unfair to Casey Kelleher when she has written a book this good.

I’ll say it again. The Missing Mother is … (stretch both arms out almost as far as they’ll reach) … this good.

It gives us a character-driven storyline, told by three narrators. Evie, who was terrified enough and desperate enough to go through the whole of her pregnancy alone and in private only to give up her child at birth. Jenna, a journalist at a local paper, who was herself abandoned as a baby and to whom this story is personal. And the unknown ‘him’, motivated by a dangerous combination of arrogance and sexual gratification. The emotions that each of these characters feel leap so powerfully off the pages that they keep an inescapable hold on you as you read. Evie’s anxiety to the point of desperation, mixed with self-loathing. Jenna with her own fears, which at first only fuel her determination but which later threaten to become overpowering. Can she trust anyone? Is even her best friend the person she had thought her to be? And then there’s the ever-present threat of ‘him’. The reader wants ‘him’ to stop but is every bit as powerless as his next potential victim. We don’t even know who he is.

The story that these characters take us on is one that’s dark, and I would quite understand it if you found one of quite a number of triggers too much to bear. I will admit to several occasions when I had to put my kindle down because it had become almost too uncomfortable to keep reading. Only to pick it up again 30 seconds later because I couldn’t not carry on. As I said earlier, the hold that this book has on the reader is inescapable. But the issues raised are dealt with compassionately, and as far as possible, even fairly. The concept of ‘safe boxes’ for unwanted babies is one that I hadn’t heard of, but I understand from Googling that they have been trialled in some US states. Is this a good thing? Should we be grateful if they save the life of a newly-born child, and respectful of the mother’s right to anonymity? Or is it more important that behind every such child is a woman who needs help? I don’t know. Both arguments are presented so well that, if I’d been asked to make a decision, I’d have ended up siding with whoever was speaking at the time.

So, with the characters keeping hold of me so firmly that it was almost painful, and with the plot carrying me forward kicking and screaming, I remained glued to the pages as the initial tension turned to fear and then terror until … the ending. Hmmm.

Rationally, there’s really nothing wrong with it. Just like the rest of the book, it’s very, very well-written, fair and believable. My problem is that the conventional premise of a psychological thriller is that it includes a twist that reveals the truth as something somehow worse than you had expected. This one sort of does the opposite and includes a twist that shows things actually aren’t as bad as I had thought. I was actually left feeling a bit reassured. Which isn’t what I wanted. I wanted what I had feared to be true all along, or even – dare I say it – even worse.

Let’s be clear, though: this is just my opinion. And it shouldn’t, even for one second, put you off reading the book. Think of it as having been on a luxurious holiday, where everything was perfect right up to, and including, the flight home. If I then returned to my car to find that someone had put a dent in it whilst it was parked at the airport, I’d be a tiny bit upset. But if the same thing didn’t happen to you, that’d be no reason for you to feel the same way.

My heart wants to deduct half-a-star for the ending but my head won't allow it. Because what's
more important is that The Missing Mother managed effortlessly to do what only the best books can. It took me out of the outside world and, just for a while, made it go away.

My thanks to the author and to Bookouture for my inclusion on blog tour, and to Netgalley for the digital ARC. My review is also available on my blog at www.mycosybooknook.wordpress.com and will be published on Amazon, Goodreads and my social media pages.

First, I want to thank Casey Kelleher, Bookouture, and NetGalley for providing me with this book so I can bring you this review.

Casey Kelleher is back with another must read psychological thriller The Missing Mother! The storyline is outside of the box, it is a fast paced, totally addicting read that will have you glued to your kindle!

I needed to know who would abandon their little baby the way they did and why? Luckily the readers got an inside look into the mother’s character.

Ohh I hated the guy who drugged Jenna and tried to take advantage of her! We not only got to see her side of the story but his as well.

The Missing Mother was an intense twisted read that needs to be put on your tbr list.