Blog Tour: The Mothers by Sarah J Naughton #bookreview #TheMothers @SarahJNaughton @TrapezeBooks @Tr4cyF3nt0n #NetGalley

Five Women.
They meet at their NCT Group. The only thing they have in common is they’re all pregnant.
Five Secrets.
Three years later, they are all good friends. Aren’t they?
One Missing Husband.
Now the police have come knocking. Someone knows something.
And the trouble with secrets is that someone always tells.

💜💜💜💜.5

Hi and welcome to my stop on the tour for The Mothers! Many thanks to Tracy Fenton for the invitation and to Trapeze Books (Orion Publishing Group) for the eARC via NetGalley!

The Mothers alternates between present events and the history of the five mothers, starting three years earlier after they’d met at prenatal classes. Bella, Electra, Chrissy, Jen and Skye couldn’t be more different if they tried, but somehow they work. Or do they? When Bella’s husband vanishes it’s clear that this is just the tip of the iceberg, that there’s more to the mothers than you see at first glance. A police investigation ensues, but this is in no way a police procedural. While there are chapters from the POV of Detective Inspector Iona Chatwin, and these are entertaining enough, it’s the mothers who steal the show. I liked Iona, a lot, and if she has one trait in common with the mothers, it’s that there’s more to her than meets the eye. Still, it wasn’t Iona I was rooting for…

I would love to tell you more, I would love to tell you a lot more, from the tiny gripe I had to everything I loved about The Mothers, but the thing is, I can’t. This is a story you need to experience for yourselves, you need to peel back the layers yourselves and see what’s underneath, and the less I tell you, the better. Just know that The Mothers is extremely compelling, I got sucked in from the start, and I loved the great many secrets the mothers have and their slow unravelling while the women themselves are starting to come apart at the seams as well.

Some excellent characterisation here too. Before long the mothers cease to be characters and have become real people, flawed people caught between a rock and a hard place. You notice yourself rooting for them, although at the same time you know full well they are still keeping secrets from you, and you realise that your faith in them, your hopes for them may very well blow up in your face.

Shocking start to equally shocking finish, I was utterly obsessed with the mothers and The Mothers, and I literally put everything on hold for the need to uncover the truth!

So would I recommend this book? I most definitely would, but don’t take my word for it, check out the other stops on the tour: