Thanks so much to the publisher and to NetGalley for giving me access to this book. This domestic thriller was a great read.I think it will be a great fit for our library community. I felt this was surprising and a great story line. I am sure we will have some patrons that are interested. It will be getting a strong recommend from me.

Paula Daly has written another twisty and entertaining novel that will keep you guessing. Thanks to Netgalley for this very good read.

I really had high hopes going into this book because it sounded like it was going to be a good read. Perhaps it was the fact that I couldn’t find a single character to like but, this story bored me to tears.

A very unsettling and uncomfortable psychological thriller which kept me gripped and turning the pages.

Great book with twists and turns
Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC in return for an honest review.

Heavy with emotion and desperation, "The Trophy Child" plot and its characters prove that life is never perfect, no matter how hard a mother tries to cover up her family's flaws. You won't look at your neighbors in the same way after you finish this novel.

This is another novel that is categorized as mystery, adult fiction when it isn't. This plot line really has no mystery - you see the whole story line coming a mile away. It would also be more suited to YA fiction than adult fiction. Maybe expectations would be adjusted and therefore the novel would be more enjoyable.

Sadly, if you're expecting to pick up a twisty mystery you are going to be disappointed in this one.

The characters were written pretty well and I enjoyed them. The novel really wasn't that unenjoyabe, the writing style was pretty good. I really feel this book suffered from bad PR. If you don't like books about teenage angst then this isn't for you - therefore it being touted as adult fiction is going to mislead readers. It's also more general fiction than any sort of mystery. There is one little twist at the very end but it's hardly enough to carry the entire novel.

Overall this isn't' a bad read - it just wasn't for me. Pick this up if you're looking for easy to read family drama fiction.

This turned out to be a really great book! It was much better than I expected, actually it was different than I expected too, more of a mystery.

I found the characters to be interesting and I didn’t know who-dun-it until Daly wanted me to. There was a time when I thought it was going to take a turn that would have been aggravating and warranted some eye-rolling, but Daly tricked me and it actually pulled together really well.

The mom in this book was a bit over the top. She was just awful and you didn’t feel bad for her at all. I felt that maybe she was written more negatively than necessary, as she was not sympathetic at all and a little less realistic due to not having any real positive traits. I could see where she was going as a mom and why she was written that way in the end, but it was just a touch too far, in my opinion.

I found the writing in this book to be engaging. I did not want to put it down and was questioning who the “bad guy” was throughout. The twist at the end was really good. I didn’t put it together, though the link was there all along.

I would certainly recommend this to others that are interested in the genre. I honestly loved it.

I was unable to finish this book (which is rare). I tried on several occasions to read it again, but I just could not get into it. It moved much too slow for me.

I've decided to binge read all Paula Daly's books, and honestly this one was the cherry on top. Her writing style has improved from book one (What kind of mother are you) and are really something astounding to appreciate.
Karen is the epitome of our society these days - kids have to excel at everything, regardless whether they want to or not. This unfortunately has a toll on her daughter, Bronte and one day the girl just disappears. Unfortunately Verity, her stepsister is initially to blame for this.
The book was really a great, entertaining read and highly recommended!!!!

Karen Bloom is disappointed in her son Ewan so she wants her daughter Bronte is excel. Bronte is spending all her time on every activity and extra schooling on offer. Bronte however one day goes out and disappears. DS Joanne Aspinall is assigned to the case.

I've seen plenty good reviews for this book so was excited to read it. The story opens straight away with the need to know more about Karen Bloom and her family. It all seems ok on the surface but things are nit always what they seem. When the crime is committed I was already drawn into the story wanting to see how it went. The story progresses deeper with a shocking turn of events.

I quite like the character of Joanne. I was willing her not to do perhaps some of the things she did. I would like to see how she gets on if she appears in another book.

I'm not sure with the ending. It was justified with reasons given why but I felt it came out of nowhere. There was no room at all for guessing and I didn't see any clues.

This book for me was over hyped but I still enjoyed it. Its the second book for me by Paula Daly and I will read more by her. I just felt slightly disappointed with the ending.

Thank you to the publisher via Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book for review.

I’m a big fan of Paula Daly’s writing so was eagerly anticipating The Trophy Child and I have to say that it didn’t disappoint.

Karen is a real tiger mum. She puts all her hope and ambition onto her daughter, trying to mould her into the perfect person. Karen won’t accept failure, won’t even accept good enough – Bronte has to be perfect. Bronte is obviously struggling at not being allowed to be a normal child with time to play with friends, and the situation is like a giant pressure cooker. Bronte’s step-sister Verity has already lashed out at Karen once, and there is still such a fury simmering under the surface in their relationship. Karen’s husband, and father of both girls, is quite ineffectual when it comes to to his family – he basically wants to keep the peace and if he can’t keep the peace he’ll do his best to stay out of the situation.

I think what I loved the most about this novel was all the layers. I thought it was going to be a novel about a child who goes missing and the way the family copes but it’s about so much more than that. There are so many different dynamics to the family at the centre of this novel that it makes for a fascinating look at why people are the way they are. We see how it feels to be the second wife, the step-child, the half-sister, the first wife, and the husband who seems to be caught between his wife and ex-wife, his children and step-child. It was the relationships between all the characters that fascinated me the most, especially when the police become involved. It’s the characters that make this novel so brilliant, even more so than the great plot. None of the characters are particularly likeable and that made this book so fascinating as I wasn’t sure how I felt when they were in turmoil. It made me consider my own emotions and I love when a novel draws me into it to this degree.

I have to admit that I did not see where this book was going. I was so confident for a fair bit of this novel that I knew how it was going to end and I was completely wrong. It’s not often that a book has me stumped but this one got me and I loved it for that!

This is definitely one of those ‘just one more chapter…’ books that you end up staying up ’til the early hours reading because you just can’t put it down. It’s a gripping read, and really does have you turning the pages at a frantic rate as you want to know what is going on.

The Trophy Child is a disturbing look at how tense and difficult trying to integrate children from one relationship, and a child from a second relationship into one family can be. This novel takes the situation to an extreme but the the day-to-day issues within this family will resonate with readers, and will likely send a cold shiver down some spines!

I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The Trophy Child is out now and available to buy here.

What a joy to find a great new author – I loved this book. The Trophy Child is a cross between a police procedural and a domestic thriller, with some unexpected joys and surprising characters, and it made me laugh when it wasn’t making me wince, and worry for the protagonists. It’s like a cross between the books of blog favourites Elly Griffiths and Liane Moriarty – and that is very high praise.

Meet the blended family of Noel and Karen Bloom: each has a child from a previous relationship, and they have one child together, a daughter Bronte. Daly sets this going very quickly and clearly – we see that Karen is a Tiger Mother, pushing Bronte to endless achievements and new subjects via a terrifying schedule. She has more or less given up on the other children, teenagers Verity and Ewan, but there has been an incident in the recent past, involving violence. Now, as the family re-groups, Verity takes Bronte out for a walk. And – every parent’s nightmare – Bronte disappears.

It would be wrong to reveal more of the linear plot than that (though I will just offer the reassurance that this is not a gruesome book, and the danger to children is done in a very careful way) – but it’s a complex and satisfactory story. It’s also quite a cheeky one, for a reason that would be a spoiler… So: very clever plot. At times I thought it was sinking too much into giving us a domestic story, but Daly triumphantly brings it all back in the end – I had been truly bamboozled.

And the picture of life for the characters is wondefully well-done, and hilarious.

Karen, the pushy parent, is a cartoon figure really – she is the least convincing as a real person, but she’s such a joy for Daly to write about that we can forgive her. At one point another pushy parent, Pia, is trying to find out if her son has taken drugs with Karen’s son:
As far as Karen knew, Hamish was too much of a goody-goody to smoke even tobacco, but she went right ahead and said ‘I’m sure it was only once or twice…’
Poor Hamish, thought Karen. The kid could deny it for the rest of his days and Pia still wouldn’t believe him.
Her husband Noel is a great creation too: he is so far from perfect that he has a charm of his own. When his in-laws are coming on an urgent desperate visit because of the various disasters that have struck the family, he
wondered idly if perhaps [mother-in-law] Mary would bring a fruit cake
- this was possibly, weirdly, my favourite line in the book, because it IS how people really think and behave. Whereas in most books it would be a clear indication that Noel is a narcissist or a sociopath or possibly a killer, in this case it is just another sign of his general outlook of life. (He may well be a guilty party – I’m not spoilering – but the cake incident is not a clue either way.)

The investigating policewoman is Joanne Aspinall, another terrific character, who is thunderstruck to find she has an unexpected connection with the case, but soldiers on bravely. (The book wanders among different points of view, and all of them are very enjoyable and well-done – but this means we don’t get as much of the investigators’ views as in a full-scale police procedural.)

I particularly enjoyed her thoughts about increasing obesity in the world:
Most of Joanne’s colleagues today couldn’t run; they were short of breath after climbing the station stairs. And for a time this had concerned Joanne. How on earth would they catch anyone? That was until she realized that most criminals were also too fat to run away from the police. She’d watched some footage recently of the miners’ riots in the 80s. Men as old as 50 hightailing across fields, vaulting over fences. That would never happen today.
The setting in the Lake District is nicely done and very real too, and there are some interesting comments on child-rearing and how we position our children with regard to outside activities.

So all in all – nothing but praise for this one. I am looking forward to reading more by Paula Daly.

The school the children attend is old-fashioned, but not - obviously – quite as old-fashioned as the picture above, which was taken in 1930. But I couldn’t resist this portrait of Australian schoolgirls: ‘St Mary's College tennis team at Charters Towers. The girls hold tennis racquets and are dressed in school uniforms with blazers, ties and hats’. It’s from the State Library of Queensland.

The Trophy Child by Paula Daly tells the story of one very complicated family. I will try and break it down for you. Karen and Noel are married. Karen has a son from a past relationship, Ewan and Noel has a daughter from his last marriage, Verity. Karen and Noel have a daughter together, Bronte. Some members of this family like each other which others totally dislike each other. From the beginning, it is evident that Karen is a bit of an overbearing mother. She puts all her attention on Bronte who she believes is very talented and intelligent.

Karen is a character who is easy to dislike. I maybe in the minority here but I didn’t dislike her enough to abandon her on a desert with no food or water. I mean, she is not the best mother but she could have been worse. She was overbearing and expected way too much from her kid. As the story progressed, I sympathized with her especially after the second mystery in the book. I feel like the other characters judged her a bit too harshly. I really didn’t like Noel. He seemed selfish and weak. Although he was one of the MCs, he felt more like a support character. I did like the detective in the story though. Joanne was different from the usual hard-core, no-nonsense detectives. As a matter of fact, readers are introduced to her during a blind date. She felt real and easily likeable. I really can’t say much about the other characters because I feel like I didn’t get to know them.

I have always seen other bloggers use this term, slow-burn. I have never used it to describe any book until now. This book is slow but it is not boring. The suspense builds slowly until everything falls apart. There were stories and mysteries with the main story. One of the main mysteries was sort of solved only for a bigger one to occur although in the end, they were all connected. I don’t know if there was much of a twist in the book. I didn’t have any OMG moments and the reveals didn’t feel shocking but that really wasn’t an issue. I would have wanted a different ending though. I just felt like a lot was left hanging. In addition, I didn’t like how two of the characters, one who I disliked and one who I liked, ended up together.

If you like domestic noirs, a bit of mystery then I think that you will enjoy this one.

A bored, and very human, detective has a one-night stand. A tiger-mother bullies her entire household. A hen-picked husband whiles away his time in bars and at work. An MS-ridden woman waits for her daughter to bring joints to her rest home. One girl strangles her step-mother in a moment of passion. Another runs away overnight for a blissful break. These are the characters that populate this engrossing domestic murder mystery.

What I particularly enjoyed about this book is that all the facts are laid out before you to solve the mystery along with the detective. I did a small happy dance when I put everything together just before the ending and was right.

Some of the characters are stock and could have done with a bit more back story, others dropped in and out without any further thought. The main characters were flawed, but still likeable. I also did not buy the family not being upset about the death of the matriarch - as horrible as she was, they were still her family. It was odd that they were reminding themselves to act like they were grieving. But otherwise it was a fun and quick read. Good for patrons who enjoy a British procedural without the gore and heartbreaking drama.

This is a 5 star novel. One of those books you start reading and think "Wow". It's the story of a dysfunctional, American, family. They suffer a very dramatic incident, involving the Police and media. Can they all pull together before life spirals out of control? A brilliant read!

Unfortunately I'm unable to review this book as it doesn't seem to have downloaded to my kindle before it was archived.

This is the third book by Paula Daly that I have read. I really enjoyed the first two books so I was pretty sure I would like this one too.

As the book opens we meet sixteen-year-old, Verity Bloom. Verity does not usually get into trouble and is a great student. However, right now she's about to submit her urine for her PE teacher to test. After an incident with her step-mother, her father made a deal that she could remain part of the school ONLY if she agreed to these weekly drug tests as well as counseling sessions. There is so much more to the story but no one listens to Verity. Her mother, Jennifer has multiple sclerosis and is in a care home near-by. Needless to say Verity has a lot going on.

We are then introduced to Detective Joanne Aspinall. It's to be her first date with a man she met online at secondchance.com. She's quickly realizing that most people are just looking for no-strings sex....not love. She's learned that it's better that she doesn't tell the men that she's a detective as that usually ends things before they even begin.

Then we have, Noel and Karen Bloom. Noel is a forty-seven year doctor. He is married to Karen and they have one daughter together, 10 year-old Bronte. They also each have a child from their previous relationships. Noel has a daughter, Verity and Karen has a son, Ewan. Lately, Noel finds himself doing whatever he can to avoid going home. His work is his refuge, where he is truly needed. He's never been a hands on father and has been mostly absent from his children's lives.

Karen Bloom suffers no fools and her children are no exception. She makes no effort to hide the fact that she is disappointed in both her son and Noel's daughter. Therefore, her focus is entirely on ten year-old, Bronte. Bronte is an easy child and does exactly what is asked of her.

Karen is known as a "tiger mother" and she's proud of it. Between music lessons and dance lessons, Bronte has a schedule that very few kids could handle. However, lately she's been having problems with her hands and although she's been to the doctor, they can't find the problem. Noel feels that her mother is pushing her too hard. Needless to say, Karen doesn't agree. Life is a competition to Karen, and only the best and the brightest will succeeded. She has given up on her first child, Ewan. He's lazy and disrespectful and she feels that she failed him as a mother. She is determined that won't happen with Bronte.

Right from the beginning, all I could think was that I REALLY disliked Karen. I probably said it aloud a few times as I continued reading. She's not just a tiger mother, she's a real *insert expletive(s) here* Wow...did she really pull some strong feelings out of me.

But then EVERYTHING spirals out of control after a simple trip to the park, setting off a chain of events that will change not just the Bloom family but many others as well.

This book had me locked in! I could not put it down! It's really hard to say much more without giving anything away. There were a lot of different plot lines happening, but they all came together well. Love them or hate them the characters were fantastically drawn.

An intelligent domestic thriller that surprised me with its twists and turns and some awesome jaw-dropping moments. Not your typical suspense novel....so much more!!

I am now a huge fan of Paula Daly and I can't wait to see what she writes next!

Thank you NetGalley, Grove Atlantic, and Paula Daly for providing an advanced readers copy of this book for me to read in exchange for my honest review.

With a title like The Trophy Child I was all set to settle into what I thought would be a farce about one of today's most easily identifiable tropes: the child who's been elevated by their parents to a standard of achievement not seen since DaVinci. My bad for not reading the synopsis—it’s a mystery replete with troubled teens, kidnapping and the problems created by the illusion of perfection. All in a small English suburb. Which is fine—I’m loving mysteries these days.

Daly arranges her characters with a neat proficiency right from the beginning of The Trophy Child. Verity is a teenager who has been required to undergo counseling for trying to throttle her stepmother. Noel is her father—a doctor who’s also a womanizer and likes to drink. Karen is the ubiquitous tiger mother and the sweet, quiet Brontë is the average ten-year-old focus of her formidable energy. On the fringes of this family unit are Verity’s mother, who is in an assisted living home due to MS and Karen’s older son who lives above the garage and seems to have no interests outside of gaming and marijuana.

When Brontë disappears this family unravels more quickly than a Walmart sweater. A female detective is put on the case and happens to be a woman Noel recently had a one night stand with and lied to. Verity was supposed to be watching Brontë and Karen wants her interrogated. Karen wants everyone interrogated and alienates anyone trying to help. Soon enough, there’s nothing but a puddle of yarn left in The Trophy Child.

It may be that, after Dead Letters, I’m jaded, but The Trophy Child did not deliver. I found several aspects of the plot to be unbelievable. Karen is without any semblance of nuance—a scheming, shrewish narcissist and Noel a weak-willed cad. Not only should neither be parents, but as characters they’re uninteresting—except for the effect they have on their children. Backing off on the stereotypes would have created more tension, but, again I’m willing to admit that I may need more adrenaline these days and that it’s not the novel, it’s me.

I was thrilled to get approved on NetGalley for this book as I devoured the author's debut 'Just What Kind of Mother Are you?' I was disappointed that I didn't experience the same roller-coaster of emotions with Trophy Child, although I loved the mystery element to this domestic noir. I had long list of suspects on my list, but none of them were correct, which really was a surprise. I definitely recommend this if you enjoy a slow burner of a read with very flawed characters.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for my digital arc.