In the Blink of an Eye is an interesting contemporary novel by Kate Hewitt. A book filled of secrets and lies. Following three mothers/wives that are navigating their way through parenthood and marriage. A little repetitive however filled with real life drama, touching on mental health and parents’ anguish of child's health with some twists. Enjoyed the ending. 3 ½ stars

I would like to thank Bookouture, NetGalley and the author for the opportunity to read this complimentary copy for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

3.5⭐️⭐️⭐️



✨ Psychological Drama
✨ Bullying
✨Secrets



✨ the story has 2 person pov of a mother. Elaine’s and Rachel. One has having a trouble with marriage and troubling son who get bullied a lot that’s why they keep moving. They felt left out in the close right community .
When they attend the party something happen and one is to blame?

✨ The story contains of betrayal,secrets , bullying and some heart wrenching feeling as a mother . A mother who is willing to protect there child no matter what.

✨ it was a good story plot yet it was very dragging with repetitive story lines.


✨ Thankyou netgalley for the arc copy of this book for a honest review .




🫶🏼shaye.reads

I am new to Kate Hewitt, and this book has instantly made me a new fan! WOW!!! What a phenomenal read! The lives of these characters change in an instant when an incident occurs at a child's birthday party. What develops afterwards took me on the best roller coaster ride!

The main characters are three mothers who all have a POV narrating this story. I found myself feeling for each of the main characters at one point or another as the plot developed. Eleanor, Natalie, and Joanna were all so well developed that I felt as though I truly knew them. They took me through a whole gamut of emotions - from empathy to sadness to anger and more.

The plot to this book is so complex. It touched on many topics that range from friendship, marriage, deceit, betrayal, bullying, and motherhood. Hewitt's writing style wove the various topics together in such a beautiful manner. I was captivated by the characters, as well as the storyline. This book was extremely relatable, and I found myself wondering what I would do if presented with the situations described in the book. This is a profound, emotional, and captivating book masterfully crafted by one of my new fave authors!

Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

WOW!! This book had me staying up late, turning pages, needing to know what would be happening next. In the Blink of an Eye is the book that you really want to get to the end of to find out what is really happening, but you do not ever want the book to end.

The three mothers in this book were all trying to raise happy and “normal” children while having the same happy and normal life for themselves. Each mother is having their own issues and just trying to keep it hidden and portray that their lives are fine and “perfect.” I felt that I could connect with each mother on some part of their life.

This book is a great thriller with unique twists and turns. Both the adult and children relationship are realistic and relatable.

I read this in one sitting on a flight, and really liked it! I loved the different perspectives, it’s a great reminder that we’re all dealing with our own issues and to have some patience for those around us. I’m glad characters took ownership of their flawed choices and everything wrapped up fairly neatly and in a realistic way.

I extend my gratitude to Kate Hewitt, Bookouture, and NetGalley for providing me with this book to review. Kate Hewitt, known for her emotionally charged narratives, took a darker turn in this particular story, showcasing a different side of her writing. This shift added an intriguing depth to the narrative. While the book started at a slower pace than I typically prefer, once the story gained momentum, I found myself effortlessly engrossed in the plot. Kate adeptly addresses crucial medical conditions such as sociopathy, conduct disorder, bullying, harassment, ADHD, ADD, and PDD, enriching readers with valuable insights. The portrayal of a parent's worst nightmare, depicted in a shocking and heart-wrenching scene, was profoundly moving. Filled with unexpected twists, turns, and poignant moments, this book offers a compelling and engaging read.

Just wow! Love this author so much and have absolutely adored every single one of her books. And this one - just wonderful. So poignant and beautifully written. Just brilliant!

Really excellent drama. Captivating!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this arc in exchange for an honest review!

In The Blink of an Eye is dramatic story about a birthday party gone wrong. The story plays on every parent’s worse nightmare….their child being injured, their child being bullied, or being that parent on the outside of the mom’s club. The story follows three women as they tell their sides of the story and what role they play in that days events. Everyone wants to point the finger and hide from the truth but in the end the truth always comes out.
Eleanor is the perfect wife and mother and the envy of all the other women. She’s planning a birthday party for her daughter Bella and her classmates but there’s one student she’s reluctant to include. Kieran. He’s the new kid at school and so far he’s a menace. The school year has just begun and he’s already been to the principals office three times. To make matters worse Bella doesn’t want to invite him but Eleanor convinces her that it’s the right thing to do.
The day of the party Eleanor is distracted by the possibility of her perfect world imploding and asks her dearest friend Natalie to watch the kids. Everything seems to be fine and the kids are having fun until Eleanor goes to find Bella and discovers her unconscious and Kieran standing over her.
Joanna knows Kieran is different from the other kids but she can’t get the courage to confront what might be wrong. The family is new to Wetherby and so far it’s not going well. Her husband Tim is paralysed with depression and anxiety and every time Joanna goes to pick up Kieran at school she’s afraid of what she’ll hear. The moms at the school are very clicky and she can sense when she’s not welcome. When Kieran gets invited to a classmates party Joanne is hopeful that this is the opportunity for her and Kieran to make some friends.
She’s about to find out how wrong she was……

The title is incredibly fitting for this book and will definitely take your emotions on a ride as a parent. Get ready for a wild ride as you read through the situation via multiple POVs about a situation that turns numerous lives upside down and inside out.

Throughout the book, I kept feeling my heartache grow as assumptions abundantly grew focused around the accident. All it takes is one person to say something and it rolls down the hill, snowballing into something too big to contain. The characters were very well-developed and easy to relate to. Some I wanted to be angry with, some I was disappointed, and others made me feel incredibly sad. Their outer appearances hide an incredible amount of darkness, untruth, and fear.

As a mother, I have felt the emotions that swirled around women who are trying to live life, facing marital difficulties, and several other real-life traumatic events in addition to the accident that each of their children had a part in. The book is a quick-paced read that keeps you submerged into the drama to the very end.

This is a compelling story that shows the power of words, and how they can hurt. It shows the consequences of making assumptions and excluding people based on what you think you might know. And through almost every single character, it shows how appearances can be deceiving. The characters are well developed and are woven together into a story of an elementary school where status matters and everyone gathers around the “perfect Mom.” And it shows the people left on the edges, those who do not appear to be as unflawed as the clique of Moms that presides over the school.

My only slight criticism is that the story moves a little slowly in the beginning. But the power of spoken words, and how they can cause catastrophe whether they are true or not, is so well laid out here that it makes this book an important read.

my rating is 4.5 stars, rounded up to 5 on sites with no half-star option.

I received a free copy of this book from Bookouture via Netgalley. My review is voluntary and the opinions expressed are my own.

Hewitt has such a talent for writing such compelling, thought provoking novels. This book touched on many tough subjects such as pediatric mental health, unbalanced adult relationships, marriage difficulties, what happens when you keep secrets, relationships among classmates, and how so easily influenced a pure child can be (pure meaning not tainted by the bad in the world).

In this book, we learn about Eleanor, Bella’s mother, Natalie, Freya’s mother, and Joanna, Kiernan’s mother. While none of these characters are 100% likeable, they are relatable, they are real. There are plenty of mothers who strive to make it look like everything in their family is perfect, mothers who gossip, and, in Natalie’s case, mothers who know that their child may need a diagnosis but isn’t ready to admit it to themselves just yet. Natalie is whom I related to the most. I didn’t want admit that my first son needed a diagnosis, intervention, and medicine. It took me a while to accept it, but I got there. Natalie does too.

The realness of this book is what pulled at my heartstrings. My heart was broken for Bella being hurt, but it was also broken for the other children who had to witness it and the people that it impacted. Unfortunately, sometimes, we need a tragedy to get real with one another, and that is exactly what this book shows.

So if you enjoy a compelling, riveting, heart string pulling type of book, then this book is for you.

I loved this book, such a variety of interesting characters, and it was great getting to know them and the dynamics they had between the various families/friendships.

This is a slower burner, but this means you can really get to know them and the many many secrets they hide. The friendships between the children and adults kept my interest throughout, different POVs also kept me engaged with the book.

This books gives a lot to readers, friendships, relationships issues, secrets, jealous and some epic playground drama! This is my second book by the author and I need to binge her previous releases.

When a mom, facing family’s difficulties, moves into a quiet Connecticut suburb with her behaviorally atypical son, acceptance from school staff and local parents proves to be a challenge. When the unthinkable happens to the birthday girl an outdoor birthday party, there is enough guilt and blame to go around in never ending circles.
Very quickly, the new boy is cast as the deliberate perpetrator of the crime, and becomes an instantaneous pariah.

Kate Hewitt has written a cautionary tale with important lessons to be learned. Rush to judgment, parental responsibility, boundaries of friendship, acceptance of others with their flaws and “warts”, alcoholism, marital discord, kindness, and the meaning of love are addressed and deftly woven into an interesting and thought provoking plot. Who among us cannot identify with people doing their best just to fit in?

This book was published on July first so it’s available right now. Four deserving stars for a good read. My thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for providing me with an advance reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review.

🌟🌟🌟🌟
Thank you Bookouture for inviting me to be part of the Books on Tour for “In the Blink of an Eye”. Kate Hewitt is a MUST read author for me. She has an amazing ability of writing both contemporary realistic fiction and historical fiction wonderfully.
This story is told from three moms' point of view.
Eleanor- is the “Queen Bee” of moms. Her house is “perfect” with her two daughters and devoted husband.
Natalie- is newly separated and raising Freya by herself. Her and Eleanor are besties.
Joanna- is new to the neighborhood. She is struggling with raising her son, who has problems in school, and her husband who is overcoming a mental breakdown.
Emotions run high when Eleanor has a birthday party and a child gets gravely injured.
Kate Hewlitt will rip out your heart and put it back together. I look forward to her next read! Many thanks to the author, Bookouture and NetGalley for a complimentary copy of the book. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.
#InTheBlinkOfAnEye #KateHewlitt #NetGalley #Bookouture #BooksOnTour #BookLove #Bookstagram #NewBook #ILoveBooks

In the Blink of an Eye by Kate Hewitt

A high-level of captivating and heartbreaking thriller. This thriller gave me a strong hit and I was hooked until the end. I enjoyed how the author linked everything together. The various POVs gave a bigger and fuller picture of the story, especially we know how each character was thinking. The content involved the traumas of characters, mental problems and ADHD. These all were quite sensitive to cover, but the author had made it worked well. The story was slow-paced, but it got more exciting.

Many thanks to Netgalley, Bookouture and the author for my copy.

Pub date: July 1, 2024

In the Blink of an Eye by Kate Hewitt is a stand-alone novel about friendship, or what passes for it sometimes. Natalie and Eleanor were friends, but both had back-stories and inner lives that the other knew nothing about. Eleanor was perfect. Everyone said so. Natalie was her shadow. Eleanor’s daughter was perfect, too. Natalie’s was not. She was a little odd. Everyone knew it. It was to be Bella’s eighth birthday and Eleanor was throwing a party. That turned out to be the first hurdle. Bella didn’t want to invite Kieran. Eleanor didn’t really, either, but she was the adult. Kieran knew he was different and he didn’t care. His mother cared. How could life be so complicated? The day of the party arrived and Eleanor passed on parents’ offers to stay and help. She had Natalie. She hid in the kitchen while Natalie herded twenty-eight third graders. The reader’s anxiety is now palpable. Something bad is going to happen. All of a sudden Bella is face down in the pond, her head bleeding. Kieran is just watching. Everyone assumes the worst. The party is over.

Eleanor has a strict rule about screens. She even has a locked drawer in which to store them when she deems fit. Natalie cannot even call Brian to tell him his daughter is on the way to the hospital. Eleanor’s phone is locked up and she doesn’t have his number. Everyone is terrified. Everyone at school starts taking sides. Slowly the story unfolds. Frightening when it is a child. Worse, when it is your child. A well-written story with excellent characters, wonderful personalities and back stories. Very real, all of them. A frightening, slow-moving plot. Built to the climax perfectly. So much more frightening than many of the less realistic thrillers out there. Excellent! Kate Hewitt!

I was invited to read In the Blink of an Eye by Bookoutre. All thoughts and opinions are mine. #Netgalley #Bookoutre #KateHewitt #InTheBlinkOfAnEye

Wow! This book hit very close to home and left me emotionally drained (in a good way)! It should definitely come with trigger warnings due to the subject matter. It involves mental health issues that are not easy to read for some people struggling with those mental health issues. I think I was in the right place in my life to read this book.

I loved everything about this book! This was not my first book by Kate Hewitt and I have loved all books by her so far. However, I have to say that this one is my all-time favorite by her. I have always loved her writing and her way of character building. This book was no different. I believe what made it so captivating for me is that I could relate to the characters (all of them!).

I believe that the book is so powerful because it is written from the POVs of all characters. We get to see behind the curtain of the lives of all characters and the things they struggle with. I felt with them, I cried with them, I wanted to hug them, I wanted to smack them…all of that.

"In the Blink of an Eye" shows what can happen when extraordinary circumstances expose everyone for who they are and that sometimes the family life is not as perfect as someone makes it seem.

This book is definitely on my list of top books in 2024!

In the Blink of an Eye is an emotional roller coaster ride with a heartbreaking plot.

Jo and Kieran recently moved to the small town from New York. Eleanor is organizing a birthday party for her daughter Bella. Natalie meanwhile is dealing with the fact that her husband had left her. But then Eleanor's daughter, Bella gets hurt and then she points the finger at Kieran before she was taken to the hospital. Jo must find out what really happened and saving her son's name.

This book is realistic and deals with real life topic issues. The story is mainly told in three women's POV--Eleanor, Natalie and Joanna and how they are each dealing with their own trauma. The book also touches on the topic of ADHD, bullying as well, the author educating the readers about it. Although the beginning was slightly boring, I found the book interesting later on in the book. There were some twists and turns and the ending was completely unexpected!

If you are fans of Jodi Picoult, then I recommend to try Kate Hewitt's books--worth five stars.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for the ARC, Many thanks to Bookouture for the blog tour. The review is based on my honest opinion only.

This book illustrates how quickly things can change in less than a few seconds.
Three families dealing with their own issues intersect during a birthday party when it all changes.
I thought it was grossly unfair of Eleanor to expect Natalie to herd 28 kids during a party. There should have been at least 5 adult chaperones.
I thought Tim was a total wet blanket and Joanna shouldn’t have carried him as long as she did.
Most of my sympathies were with Natalie and Lizzy, who I think got the shaft and never got the attention she deserved.
Looks can be deceiving and one never knows what’s really going on, even among the closest of friends.