"𝙏𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙗𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙡𝙖𝙨𝙩 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙞𝙣 𝙢𝙮 𝙟𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙣𝙖𝙡 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙙𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙄'𝙫𝙚 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙥𝙪𝙩 𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙤 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙙𝙨."

A gripping, well-written, edge of your seat thriller. 
First off, be aware that this book should come with trigger warnings. It touches on child abuse, sudden infant death syndrome and a few other connected issues. Some of it is quite hard to read, although it doesn't go into detail. 
However, from page one I was hooked. A classic case of 'did she, didn't she?' Everytime I thought I knew what was going on, I found out I was wrong. Nothing was as it seems and it made for a thrilling read. The story is full of twists and turns, definitely a must read.
This is my first time reading a Diane Jeffrey book, and I was not disappointed so it certainly won't be my last.

Thank you NetGalley for my copy.

A great book following the lives of Melissa who has sadly lost her twin girls and is now in prison, Jon a journalist who has his own problems and Kelly, a young trainee journalist. Easy to read and written at a good pace making you want to carry on reading. Loved all the characters but had a soft spot for Jon. Great ending too, enjoy! Thanks to NetGalley for my copy in exchange for an honest review.

I went into the book knowing that there was a distressing theme to it. What could be worse than a child's death? Two babies dying. In the same household. Under the watch of the same person. Their own Mother!!
The Guilty Mother is a compelling and thrilling read with many moments that made for slightly uncomfortable reading (death of children). However, that's not all. There are so many twisted turns, most you won't see coming, but that last one totally blew my mind away!

Melissa Slade had it all: beauty, money, a successful husband and beautiful twin babies. But, in the blink of an eye, her perfect life became a nightmare – when she found herself on trial for the murder of her little girls.
Jonathan Hunt covered the original Slade Babies' case for the local newspaper. Now that new evidence has come to light, Jon's boss wants him back on the story to uncover the truth.
With Melissa's appeal date looming, time is running out. And, as Jon gets drawn deeper into a case he’d wanted to forget, he starts to question Melissa's guilt.
Is Melissa manipulating Jon or telling him the truth? Is she a murderer, or the victim of a miscarriage of justice?
And if Melissa Slade is innocent, what really happened to Ellie and Amber Slade?

Both the main characters and the plot of this book are super to read! But the ones I loved the most were Jonathan and Kelly. They make a super team!! The chapters involving them and their experiences and interactions made for really good reading. I also loved reading about Mellissa's experience after she was incarcerated and the unexpected friendship she shares with a fellow prisoner. There were certain times I felt that it was getting a bit repetitive, but not as much as to put me off from reading. In all, this was a really great read. Watch out for those twists!
Thank You, NetGalley, HQ Digital & Diane Jeffrey for an arc!

This book was absolutely thrilling! I was on the edge of my seat desperate to find out what happened next for at least 90% of this book. There were so many amazing twists and turns that I never saw coming and so many different layers to the story.
 We follow Jon and Kelly, two journalists who have been assigned to report on the appeal of Melissa Slade, a woman convicted of murdering her two baby daughters. Some new evidence has recently come to light which may quash the charges against Melissa. 
In The Guilty Mother, we learn about Melissa and her family as well becoming familiar with Jon and Kelly’s lives. The character development in this book was just amazing - I felt like I knew them all personally, they were that realistic! I don’t want to say much more as I feel like anything else would be a spoiler, but there are so many different leads throughout this book and you really will be guessing right until the very end! The writing flowed well, the characters were amazing and the plot was totally gripping. Highly recommend - 5 stars🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Thank you to HQ for sending me the ebook of this story in exchange for an honest review.

This book was an interesting read. The story of Mother whose children have passed away but she is innocent! The thriller and the mystery surrounding it all was a good read! I loved the twist @ the end took

Thank you to NetGalley, Diane Jeffrey and HQ Digital for this ARC.

Good book, nice twisty ending. I will be reading more Diane Jeffrey books in the future.

The Guilty Mother was my guilty pleasure for a couple days! I devoured this book in a weekend. I was glued to the storyline.... mom Melissa Slade has it all including a set of beautiful twin girls, but her life all came crumbling down when she is accused of murdering her girls.....right?!?! I told you I was glued to my kindle! 

Now this is where I can no longer review. You need to go into this story with no spoilers, no heavy background, nothing! You need to enjoy this book blindly and let Diana Jeffrey take you on a journey that will shock the poo out of you and keep you guessing until the last possible second.

What a tangled web we weave! 

This book was a really fun whodunnit! I really liked Jon the reporter with the tragic past, Kelly the young journalist who is very enthusiastic and looking to impress. Melissa, The Guilty Mother herself is also an interesting character. I really enjoyed that we got to see inside her life in prison. 

The layout of the book was really fantastic and the chapters weren’t too long. I enjoyed the different points of view and how each chapter was in a different perspective. When authors do that I find it really holds my interest. 

Thank you to Netgalley, HQ Digital and Diane Jeffrey for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Jonathan Hunt is an excellent reporter. He's willing to cover almost any story, any story but hers. This time he doesn't have a choice. His boss is making him cover Melissa Slade's new appeal. Her last chance to escape the sentence that was handed down to her after her twin girls died. 

What Jonathan doesn't expect are his beliefs to be shaken. For new truths to come out about the night of each girls death, making everyone question whether she really killed her children or if it was a freak accident for both girls. 

This was an enjoyable read. There were plenty of twists and turns that kept me guessing and trying to figure out the remaining pieces of the puzzle. Definitely something to curl up with on a dreary day. You won't want to put it down.

This was an enjoyable, suspenseful read that I read in one day. Thank you to Netgalley for allowing me to read this early in exchange for an honest review.

A psychological thriller that tugs the heartstrings!  I enjoyed this story very much, and I certainly didn’t see the twist at the ending coming!

The story is told through three viewpoints; Melissa, an ex-police woman whose twin baby girls have died from apparent cot-deaths, newspaper reporter Jon, who has been assigned to report on Melissa’s forthcoming appeal and is unwilling to do so for personal reasons, and Kelly, a junior reporter whom Jon is mentoring, and as the story progresses we find she has her own reasons for finding out the truth.

Melissa was not a good witness at her original trial, which Jon had also reported on; she had showed no emotion, which convinced him she was guilty.  He had just suffered the terrible loss of his wife and unborn daughter by a hit-and-run driver, and was left to bring up his two sons on his own.  He could not understand how she could show no emotion at the loss of her babies.

The courts had decided that the death of the first baby was cot-death, but it would be too much of a coincidence for that to be the cause of death of the second baby a few weeks’ later, and the coroner found sufficient evidence to suggest it was murder.  It is Melissa’s first husband, a senior policeman who uncovers evidence to refute the murder charge, that had not been disclosed by the prosecution, or used at the trial.  He wants her cleared and out of prison because their son Callum needs her, he is finding life a struggle after people find out he is the son of a murderer.

The author takes you into the minds of each of these people, you can understand why they think and act as they do.  For me John is the most interesting character. He is forced to take on this story and inadvertently finds out something that will have repercussions in his own life.  Kelly finds a key witness through another project she is working on, and that sets her off wondering whether she can sort out an issue from her past.  Clearly the author could write at least another book following these two characters, their back stories have been well-developed enough for that to happen.

The story is well thought out, and well-constructed. It is well worth reading.

This book really kept me reading late into the night.  Melissa Slade has a nice home and having  just had twin girls, even has an au pair to help.out. Then her world is turned upside down when she is accused of murdering her girls.
Jonathan Hunt is the journalist who has to try and prove Melissa's innocence by the time her appeal is due. He listens to all the different people involved in Melissa's life and wonders if he should really be trying to prove her innocence when the feedback he is getting starts to put doubt in his head. This will keep you guessing until the end

3.5 stars.

Melissa Slade, mother of Callum, stepmother to Bella, and mother two twin baby girls, 3 months old.

One night changes her life forever. Her babies are gone. Forever. There is no escape from the pain of losing one child, much less two. 

As if grief weren’t enough, she is arrested, tried, and thrown in jail for life.

As time moves on and her last appeal approaches, new evidence has come to light that could possibly prove her innocence, if she even is.

——————

Easy, simple read. Enjoyable. Slow in parts (only bc the details got dragged out for a bit in some spots). Surprise ending. Family drama. What more would you like? ;-) 

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

I really enjoyed this book and read it in one sitting.  Great characters and a great plot line.  I would highly recommend this book to anyone.

Fantastic concept of the novel.  Easy to understand retrospection. The suspicions raised and the complexity of the twists and turns that lead to a great ending. I would definitely recommend that book to  friends.

This is the epitome of a suspense thriller, the format of the book is used brilliantly. Flashing back to actual events without any confusion. The story is tough as always with children dying, Diane has written a twisted tale that keeps the reader guessing all the way. The journalists provide a way of exploring ideas and assumptions myself as the reader thought, so in that made me doubt my thoughts as too obvious. So the suspense was maintained throughout. A brilliant read and totally love the Jon and Kelly characters, I hope to read about them again.
#NetGallery #TheGuiltyMother #DianeJeffrey #bookreview #booktoread

Wow what a thrilling read this turned out to be Diane Jeffrey had me gripped to my core i couldn't put it down. 
Melissa Slade is the mother to a teenage son from her first marriage and twin baby girls from her second husband. Normally a fit and healthy woman, previously a high ranking police officer, Melissa was struggling after the birth of her girls and at the suggestion of her close friend she employed a cleaner and an au pair to help with the children. 
Suddenly she finds herself on trial for the murder of the babies. 
Enter Jonathon Hunt, journalist for the local newspaper whose asked to write a feature article by his editor. 
What follows will leave you breathless as the story unfolds and the double twist at the end is writing at its best. 
Fantastic read.

I really enjoyed the concept of this novel, I loved the characters, the multiple suspicions raised and the complexity of the twists and turns that unravelled a fantastic ending. There were a couple of little plot holes in this I found along with some mistakes that were missed in editing, preventing me from giving this a 5star review. However that doesn't take away from the wonderfully thought out storyline, believable characters and fantastic exploration into its many themes. I read this in one night because I couldn't put it down. ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5/5.

My Synopsis: Jon and Kelly work as journalists for a local paper and are following the story of an appeal being reopened for a woman who allegedly murdered her twin babies. Melissa has been in prison for 5 years convicted for killing one of her twins after losing the other to SIDS. This book delves into the characters pasts, looks at the timeline and missed details surrounding the babies deaths and explores the doubt cast on Melissa's initial conviction.

Jonathan Hunt an investigative journalist along with his junior Kelly Fox is tasked with covering the appeal of Melissa Slade who is serving a prison sentence for the death of her twin daughter Ellie (her other twin daughter Grace had already died of SIDS weeks before)  after new evidence has come to light that Melissa might not be the killer that they found her guilty of being. Having previously covered the original trail and believing Melissa guilt he's less then pleased to be tasked with covering the retrial. 

I liked the way the story was told from the perspective of all three main characters and how it moved between the present and the past. 

Lots of twists and turns and unexpected outcomes and keeps the reader’s attention.

Damn.

This novel pulled me in from the very first page. There was so much going on, little intricacies and clues woven through the text that stick in the back of your mind until the perfect moments in the plot.

I loved the dual perspective, seeing things from Kelly’s POV as well as Jon’s. It wasn’t overdone, or too much back and forth, and we got an extra POV via Melissa’s diary entries which was a very nice touch.

We get to follow the story from the moment Jon picks it up, to the moment they close the case. It’s an interesting look at how the media works and how it influences public opinion. I do realise this is a work of fiction, but it is highly reflective of reality. Think back on court cases you recall and how the media framed them! One great example is the McDonald’s coffee case. A woman was framed by media as being over the top and silly, but she was actually left with severe burns and a lifelong disability because of that hot coffee spill. I wasn’t aware of that for years after it happened. Check out the podcast Swindled if you have time, they do a great job covering it.

The only thing that didn’t quite get me on board was the title, I feel like it’s a little too obvious, though I also have no suggestions on what I would have titled it. And this is a very minor aside.

Slightly unrelated, also, I don’t know that I would call this a thriller, as such, which is what it seems to be tagged as on GoodReads, but there isn’t really a genre name that’s apt for describing these kinds of novels. A domestic… crime, mystery, suspense? Something? Regardless, don’t expect thrills and twists, but do expect a good story that makes you feel like you’re a part of the investigation.