An emotional and heartfelt story about family bonds and loss. Cooper’s sensitive portrayal of grief and healing offers a touching and memorable reading experience.

This gripped me from the beginning and just wouldn’t let up. Every time I thought I understood what was happening there was another surprise. So many secrets that should have been shared. So many decisions that shouldn’t have been made. Sometimes really bad things happen to good people, and it changes how they see themselves and others. This is the story of friendships, relationships and marriages that are destroyed and how the truth can finally start the healing process.

Set in a small little village in England, My Darling Boy asks the question of forgiveness. Two best friends, and their two sons were as close as peas in a pod. But when Chrissy's son Leo killed Alice's son Robbie in the village pub there friendship ends. It's several years later and Leo is released from prison. The villagers are up in arms and Chrissy is receiving threatening letters. It all comes to a head when she goes to pick up her son and he has disappeared.

Where has Leo gone? Who can she convince to help her search for him? Cooper keeps the story moving as you ask yourself - what would you do?
#penguin #helencooper #mydarlingboy

On New Year’s Eve, best buds Leo and Robbie get into a fight resulting in Robbie’s death. Leo is convicted of manslaughter, and is about to be paroled after serving only 2 years, and the residents of his small town mount a campaign of harassment to convince his mother to move away. But when Leo is released from prison, he promptly disappears, and the small town secrets come to light. My Darling Boy focuses on the mothers of the two boys involved in the fight, once the closest of friends and now bitter enemies. As the plot evolves however, more and more layers of secrets emerge, and the book takes a turn into soap-opera territory, and it feels like overkill as the reader is teased with so many subplots that it gets frustrating. Eventually all the loose ends come together, and it’s a quick moving, though convoluted book, but definitely worth a read. I received an ARC of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was gripping and hard to put down. It didn't feel like everything else you see out there, it felt very fresh. I really enjoyed this book!

You know a book is great when you’re constantly letting out a breath you didn’t know you were holding while reading. I was on the edge of the seat from the very first line, I kept having to tell myself to relax as the book was so intense I would find myself sitting rigid waiting for what was next. The plot of this book is utterly gripping from start to finish. There was twist, after twist after twist. At no point did I know where we were headed next, and my mind was absolutely blown when we got there. I would do anything to get to read this book for the first time again. 10/5 stars

This is the second novel by Helen Cooper reviewed by Bayside Book Reviews and both thrillers have earned five stars. My Darling Boy is another expertly written and plotted thriller, and this reviewer was drawn into the story from the first pages.

After Leo is imprisoned for two years for manslaughter of his best friend, Robbie, he and his mother, Chrissy, become pariahs in their town. Everyone is against them. No one acknowledges the extenuating circumstances surrounding the tragedy. Although the young men were arguing at the time, Robbie's death was unintentional. The hatred that Leo and his mother suffer caused this reader to empathize. A lot. I wanted forgiveness, healing, and redemption.

As the story unfolds, secrets and lies are revealed that changes everything. My Darling Boy is a compelling story and a recommended read.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Putnam Books for providing an advance copy of the book to read and review. This review will post to Bayside Book Reviews.com and its Instagram page on release day. Follow us! *NetGalley Top Reviewer*

My Darling Boy by Helen Cooper is about two sons, their mothers who are best friends, living a quiet life until it all comes apart at the seams. One of the sons is dead, by the other's hand. Both mothers are in mourning, one for her son and the other HER son, both grieving the loss of the life they all once shared.

Let me start by saying I love Helen Cooper. She's an automatic author for me. I'll read whatever she puts out. My two cents for this one is a little different though. I wanted to find out what was going on, but honestly, it took me a little longer than I would have liked to finish the book. The "twist" was okay, but not too shocking. However, I will say that the way one of the characters turned out was more shocking to me than anything. All in all, it was good and while I have enjoyed this author's other books a little better, I did enjoy this one as well. Releases in the United States December 2024.

Thank you to Netgalley and to the publisher! No review was required.

I really enjoyed Helen Cooper’s other books, but this one was a little flat. Somehow I felt like there was too much and too little going on. I wish we could’ve learned more about how the two women became friends. I accepted that they were but they were so different even from the very beginning before the trouble started. I would’ve thought that would’ve caused trouble long before they had children. The book also ended abruptly. I felt like we could’ve talked a little bit more about the relationship between the boys instead of the book just ended, Georgie‘s character was oddly more flushed out than the two main women but ultimately she didn’t have that much to do with the actual plot

Alice, Chrissy and their two sons used to be the best of friends in their small English village. They'd spend long nights together passing the time at Chrissy's pub, The Raven, watching Robbie and Leo play while shooting the breeze with the locals. But their friendship is ruined one dark New Year's Eve when Robbie kills Leo. When Chrissy goes to pick up Leo on his prison release date, he never shows, sparking panic across the village. Leo's disappearance leads to a number of secrets being revealed, and Chrissy and Alice being forced to face their own troubling past.
I didn't love this book. In the beginning I had a hard time keeping all of the characters and timelines straight. The secrets and lies seemed obvious from the start, and didn't really hold my interest. Many thank to NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Putnam | G.P. Putnam's Sons for an ARC of this title in exchange for my honest feedback.

Helen Cooper’s books keep getting better and better she’s the new Queen of the psychological thriller. Kudos and thanks the the advanced copy!

This book had it all for me. The twist and turns through the whole book that I never saw coming were amazing. The ups and downs of friendships and family kept me wanting to read more! A New Year’s Eve party to a wrong turn and opened a floodgate of secrets and lies!
Thank you NetGalley for this arc!!

I received a copy of the book "My Darling Boy" from NetGalley. Chrissie and Alice had been friends for decades. They ran a pub together. They each had a son who grew up together. Then on New Years Eve one of the sons dies at the had of the other son. Leo goes to jail for two years for Manslaugther. the death of one son destroyed the friendship between the two women. When Leo is released from jail he immediately disappears. there are other odd things going on as well. There are secrets that have been kept for years that are now being revealed. I found this book pretty good for the most part. Don't want to give spoilers but all things come together eventually. I would give this book a 3.5.

I was given this book by NetGalley for an honest review-
This was a great read! Chrissy and Alice have always been best friends and so have their sons. But one night Robbie said something to Leo and Leo punched him, he fell and hit his head and was gone. How can a relationship survive that? Leo goes to jail. Chrissy gets notes telling her to move etc. When Leo is released she goes to pick him up and he’s gone. Where would he go? Has something happened to him? There must be more to his disappearance!

The story line is great! I never expected the twist with Peter, very shocking but made the story line even better! At the beginning it was alittle hard to get into but things started to pick up and i ended up finishing it in one sitting!

I just could not get into this book. I tried so hard, but it was just <i>so</i> boring. I kept finding other things that I had to do instead of read this because I just didn't want to (I literally convinced myself to organize my bathroom closet last night).

It kind of felt like nothing was happening throughout the entire book, even though quite a few things were going on. I'm having a hard time putting my thoughts into words; all I can really say is that I was bored from beginning to end.

I thought maybe it would pick up after a while, but it never really did. Even after the ending it feels like "...that's it?". Nothing ever really shocked me and I figured out what had happened very early on.

Book: My Darling Boy
Author: Helen Cooper
Publisher: Penguin Group Putnam
Pub Date: December 3, 2024

Is it possible to feel like something is too far-fetched yet enjoy it at the same time? That is how I felt about this book. It was so easy to read and I flew through it which I love books like that. I thought it was a really good depiction of what can happen to a close friendship when one child does something to the other’s child. But there was just a lot of murder that no one seemed to pay for. The author created a fair amount of tension and presented a really good mystery with several twists. I had strong emotions toward Georgie and trust me you will also. But the flip side was it was just all too easily solved in the end. Murder is murder and if you kill multiple times there just seems to be a need for punishment. Right? Maybe not. Who knows? I can think of several different directions this book could have taken for a more plausible storyline. In the end I did enjoy it and can recommend reading it. The Downstairs Neighbor and The Couple In The Photo are two of her books that I highly suggest putting on your TBR.

Thank you Penguin Group Putnam and NetGalley for this sneak peak! Publication date is December 3, 2024.

Chrissy and Alice have been best friends for decades. Naturally, their sons Robbie and Leo became best friends as well. When twenty-something-year-old Leo accidentally kills Robbie in a bar fight, he is sent to prison for manslaughter. This is where the book began... It's been 2 years since the murder and Leo is released early for good behavior. Chrissy, Leo's mother, anxiously waits for him outside the prison gates but it seems he left without her. He never makes it home. Where did Leo go? Did he take off willingly or was he forced? Why did Leo kill Robbie in the first place? Who is the newest addition to the village and why is she inserting herself in the middle of everyone's business? What secrets are the villagers hiding?

This was a perfectly fine thriller. It was an easy read and had decent pacing, but overall... it just wasn't memorable. At some point, I caught myself thinking, "for a book that has so much going on, I'm awfully bored." The ending was predictable and I guessed every twist before they happened. I enjoyed the plot, however, and (despite the predictability) I liked how cleanly things wrapped up in the end. I also appreciated the development that went into the main characters; Chrissy and Alice's friendship, especially, was very well written.

Overall, this was a solid 3-star-read.

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I discovered Helen Cooper with her terrific “The Couple in the Photo” and I’m so thrilled to read another well-crafted story from her. This time it’s the traumatic tale of two mothers of twenty-something sons, both sets of former best friends, whose lives were harshly separated when a fight broke out on New Year’s Eve two years ago. It was either a punch or a push, but Alice’s son Robbie died and Chrissy’s son Leo went to prison for manslaughter. Chrissy, the local pub owner, lost her business as the entire small village punished her as well as her son. Alice cannot let go of her absolute rage and even led a group of people to buy the pub (and ban Chrissy from it).

Leo is being released early, but tensions are simmering. Except when Chrissy goes to pick up her son, he’s missing. There’s more than meets the eye in this village — and quite a few secrets are being kept, even by newcomer Georgie who seems a tad over-invested in the local gossip.

Cooper creates another tension-filled mystery that explores friendships and motherhood. As the hunt for the missing Leo goes on, the cast of characters reveal themselves slowly and surprisingly. 4 stars!

Literary Pet Peeve Checklist:
Green Eyes (only 2% of the real world, yet it seems like 90% of all fictional females): YES Chrissy has green eyes.
Horticultural Faux Pas (plants out of season or growing zones, like daffodils in autumn or bougainvillea in Alaska): NO

Thank you to Penguin/GP Putnam and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy!

I really enjoyed this thriller. It has some great twists!

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