The Perfect Daughter

WOW. What a masterful job by the author. A look at mental illness and multiple personalities from within the family. The villain was hidden from my sight until the end of the book. Devious and twisted personality masked as a helping hand. A second story of addiction gives a whole different perspective.

Y’all this one was definitely a thriller of a novel! Characters were amazing and the writing was excellent. It kept me hooked the whole time!

Loved the latest book by DJ Palmer! It is full of twists and turns and will definitely have you hooked from the first chapter. DJ Palmer never disappoints, and his latest might be my very favorite. Highly recommend for a thriller of a book you can't put down!
Thank you to netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

DJ Palmer NEVER disappoints in his writing. What a fantastic book! Being a Mom, you can understand Grace's devotion to her daughter. She tries to understand her daughter's mental illness the best she can through all the tribulations of being a teenager's mother. The ending was a complete surprise! I had been suspecting someone completely different. Once again, an awesome book by a great author!

The Perfect Daughter by D.J. Palmer is a superbly written psychological thriller. We get three alternating narrators (perspectives) from Grace, the mother; Jack, the brother; and Mitch, the doctor. A fourth narrator, Penny, gets limited time, even though this is her story (and Eve's and Chloe's and Ruby's and others?).

Penny, you see, has dissociative identity disorder (DID) and is accused of killing her birth mother. But which alter committed the crime? Or is she making up her disease because she's a pathological liar?

Palmer skillfully keeps the suspense building right up until the end. When the murderer is revealed, the reader feels the shock like Mitch feels the fist to the nose.

Fantastic book!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

DJ Palmer has done it again. Just when I think I can figure out the ending of a book there comes the twist completely out of nowhere. The story follows the event of the murder of Rachel who happens to be the birth mother of the accused, Penny. Penny does not recall murdering Rachel or any of the events of that evening. Penny also has DID which is a metal illness where she has multiple personalities or alters as they are called. Did one of the alters kill Rachel? If so, why? What does Penny recall from her early days with Rachel? What is in store for this family?

If you get lucky enough to get your hands on this book - make sure you have nothing going on in your life as this is one book you will not want to put down for anything else.

Wow, Usually, it's not difficult to guess the ending of a thriller with all sorts of hints in the chapters, This one was a complete surprise and exciting like finally reaching the top of a gigantic mountain and at last being able to breathe with ease.

This is a fast paced medical thriller about a mother, Grace Francone, that sees a toddler alone in the playground and immediately has a connection with this lost little girl. After discovering that her birth mother is addicted to drugs and not able to take care of her, she starts the proceedings for adoption. Grace and her husband, Arthur, have two sons and she has always wanted a daughter. But this little girl comes with a serious medical condition: Dissociative Identity Disorder or what's usually known as multiple personality disorder. This wasn't apparent for the first few years after adoption. And when they did come out, Grace said, "We were all too in love with Penny to notice" the signs.

The beginning puts you on the edge of your seat when Penny Isabella Francone is now 16 and she's been arrested for murder of her birth mother. The reader dives into her background to learn about the different personalities of this girl: Penny, Eve, Chloe and Ruby -- all with different traits. One of the personalities also has a friend Maria would keep me as a mother up at night.

The most interesting part of the book is about the characteristics of this medical disease and how it can be confusing in the court system. Did "the Devil make her do it?" How does an attorney approach this case? It shows how little we know about mental illness and how difficult it is for parents, siblings and friends to relate. The author also tosses tidbits of related medical information like drugs that may help and how smell is closely linked to memory. This book is on my list of favorites.

My thanks to the author, publisher and NetGallery for allowing me to read this advanced copy expected to be released in April, 2021.

The characters were so easy to connect with! They seemed relatable and real, making it easy to dive headfirst into this book and want to never put it down. The writing is powerful and you feel like you're living the story with the characters. I really liked the way he wrote the switches between each of the main character's personalities; it seemed real and believable, not totally dramatic and fictional. The story was very well written and as always, thrilling suspense for Mr. Palmer!

D.J. Palmer has crafted another bombshell!!!! A nuclear bombshell!!!

I have been waiting patiently for this book and it did not disappoint!!

I'm not going to reiterate the synopsis but state how this book affected me.

The narrative is told via several POVs. The characters were so lifelike and relatable even though they are flawed. Compassion was felt for many of the cast members to the point that my heart was breaking for them. The suspense was taut with heart-pounding moments. A definite white knuckle read!

And then WAIT!!!! WHAT?? Did I just read that? I had to read the sentence three times to make sure I wasn't misunderstanding who the murderer was!!!! A jaw-dropper that I did not see coming nor was it on my radar!!!

A read that will transport the reader into the story without knowing what is going on around them.

And now the BIG question. When will the next novel be published so I can put it on my calendar?

GR: 01/26/21
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Blog 04/21/21