An enjoyable read that I will go on to recommend. I found the characters interesting and the plot line engaging. Thank you Netgalley for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

I have read a few of Nicks books now and he definitely does not disappoint. I love his style of writing and makes you feel there. Good book.

Despite being a fan of Nick's books ordinarily, I really didn't click with this book, with the plotline or with the characters.

I have read Nick Alexander books before and have always enjoyed them. He writes beautifully and tells a great story. This book centres on Alice and her relationships with her husband of 40 years and her two sons Tim & Matt. The characters are complex and you are torn between like and dislike; pity and scorn at different times. 

Loved this book and highly recommend this and any other Nick Alexander book you can get your hands on. 

Many thanks to the author and Netgalley for the opportunity to read an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Having read previous nick Alexander books I had high hopes for this one. Just couldn't seem to get into it. Thats not to say the story is bad, quite the opposite. Just couldn't find a rapport with the characters

Alice is an immensely unhappy woman, although she is not able to recognize it or at least not openly. But she was not always like this. She remembers that once, many years ago, her life was very different. She was able to dream, laugh and drink life in gush.

Alice was full of dreams to realize, but those were other times, much more difficult than the current ones and she was not fully aware of it until the day her parents arranged a marriage for convenience.

Ken is a gray person, bitter, obsessed with money and control. An old-school bully, for whom wife and kids are just a nuisance and the occasional punching bag when the alcohol is no longer enough to drown his sorrows.

In this marriage never came love or complicity even when the children arrived, quite the opposite. Based on fear instead of trust or love. Alice ended up becoming as gray and sad as her husband, someone for whom nothing is right, always with criticism at the tip of the tongue. Incapable of a close or loving gesture.

But Alice can no longer cope with this life so perfect for the gallery, but so hard and loveless in reality. She wants another life, if only for the years she has left. She needs to experience happiness again, a memory so distant that she now feels as necessary as the air to live.

She doesn’t know where to start and she doesn’t take her other son out of her head. She knows nothing about him but misses him so much. That other son who has become a stranger but who right now is like a life preserver, something to hold on to, a ray of light and hope in this very complicated moment she is living.

I didn’t expect The Other Son to be such an emotional novel, so hard, written with so much feeling and heart but that I would enjoy reading so much. Although I had to read it slowly to digest this increasingly emotionally complex plot.

At some point I felt overwhelmed by emotions, with a knot in my throat, I was left with tears, but at the same time I felt joy and the message of hope transmitted by the author through that, the other son.

It is an amazing, essential novel that leaves deep and indelible traces. It is an insurmountable story.

First of, many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the eARC copy.


 Alice is ot happy. Her husband is abusive and her sons don't want to spend any time with her. Alice is her own worst enemy. One of her sons is marries and doing well. The other son is away travelling the world.

This is a out as dysfunctional a family you can get. It covers some delicate subjects: abuse, human trafficking and prostitution to name a few. The story is told from multiple points of view. The characters are not likeable. None of the char5are very likeable. Nons of them are happy in their situations. It did take me a little while to get into the book, but once I did, I couldn't put it down.

I enjoyed this book, the story of Alice, whose been unhappily married for 50 years, and tells us about the relationship she has with both her sons, Matt and Tim.  An unhappy tale of a family where the children has witness domestic abuse and how its affected their relationships.

I loved this book. What I like about this particular book and all the books by Nick Alexander is that the way that he writes is as if he is writing real life stories about real people. They feel real, believable, as though he's writing about my family or about people I know. This book is a wonderful story about a non functioning family and about people finding themselves, however long it takes.

An interesting story about a family that is not by any definition perfect. The flawed characters may be hard to like, but as the story progresses, they come alive and I found myself empathizing with them.. Alice has been unhappy in her marriage to Ken for many years, yet she cannot imagine a different life. She trudges on in her unhappiness and does not realize how this affects those around her. Her husband is a bully who always expects to get his way. 

Tim, their son, tries his best to watch over his parents and maintain a relationship with them. His wife sees how negatively their visits affect him and tries to protect him by limiting their interactions, much to Alice's disapproval. The other son, Matt, is in Europe and has not been home in several years. Whilst Tim seems to have made a good life for himself, Matt appears to wander from country to country doing one dead-end job after another. 

This story is told from the different perspectives of the main characters, giving us a first class view of events. I loved how the author uses this to enrich the story. For example, when Alice describes her relationship with Tim's wife, Natalya, we get the impression that Natalya is frosty and mean. This made me imagine she was keeping Tim away  from his parents out of malice, till I got to see events from Natalya's point of view and realized that Alice is not very nice to her and Natalya is just protecting her husband. The only character whose perspective we do not get to see is Ken. I wonder what flavour that would have added to the story?

I found this book engaging and well written. Although it has very deep themes, such as forbidden love and domestic violence, and featured a dysfunctional family, it manages to entertain as well. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys thrillers and family dramas. 

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Great read. Well written and plot is well thought through and strong characters within. 
Highly recommended.
Thank you to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book

Enjoyed this book was very gripping & could not put it down did not take me long to read once I got into it I would recommend it to a friend!

Another lovely book by this author examining the relationship between parents and their sons. Sad and thought provoking at times and uplifting at others.

Family dynamics are a powerful thing. Alice and Ken have been married for 50 years. Fifty years of anger and unhappiness. Their two sons, Tim and Matt have pretended that all is well, just as their parents have. But one day, Alice has had enough. She leaves Ken and eventually finds herself forging a new, strong relationship with Matt, who had always been the child she least understood. In getting to know who Matt is, Alice is able to acknowledge  who she really is. And with acknowledgement, comes acceptance. Perhaps even a brighter future.

The first time I picked this up, the depression of the mother was way too much for me and I put it down. I waited a month and tried again and I'm glad I did. When you look for excuses, like going out in the rain to buy bread you don't need, just to get away from your husband, you really need to wonder why you are still there. The local son has so much wealth, but no happiness or even congrats from the picky and nagging parents. no wonder the other son left years ago as you just can't win with these folks!
The story did turn around and I did finish it, but it was still dragging me down more than picking me up. 2.5 stars is the best I can say. Others may disagree, but I need more uplifting books if I am to read for pleasure.
Thank you NetGalley for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Other Son by Nick Alexander was a beautifully written book and I enjoyed a lot. Nick Alexander is a new author to me and I will be reading more of his books in the future. I loved the way he wrote, as he wrote with passion throughout. Just beautiful! x

I highly recommend this book

Thank you NetGalley for my copy of this book, in exchange for an honest review.

The Other Son by Nick Alexander is the second novel that I have read by this author and, like the first, I found it to be a fascinating character driven story that speaks, with much wisdom, to the human condition.  What I love about a Nick Alexander story is the fallibility and vulnerability that is so fully fleshed out in each and every character.

Alice has been ticking along for years with her husband, Ken, until one day her friend Dot decides to leave her own marriage, and Alice realizes that the time has come for her to drop the facade that she has hidden behind for so long.  The dysfunction of the family has been glossed over for years, and Alice and Ken's two sons, Tim and Matt, have each carved out new lives for themselves.  Having a distant relationship with her boys, Alice awkwardly reaches out to them in her time of need, but is it too late to begin healing the hurts of the past, particularly with Matt, whom Alice has always considered to be 'other'?  This is an emotive and engaging domestic drama that showcases the author at his best.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Amazon Publishing UK for this ARC.

If I was only given one word to describe this book that word would be lovely.  Although the storyline is about a dysfunctional family and the affects this has on the entire family it also shows that it is never too late for.change.  The characters are so well drawn I was totally invested in them and found myself wanting them to get it together!  This is a great book and I highly recommend it.

An easy book to read, full of everyday domesticity. It starts slowly but quickly becomes thought provoking. Alice seems quite placid and long suffering but Ken, the husband, he's a real piece of work. Overall a good read.

It's the first time that i have read any of Nick Alexander's books and judging by 'The Other Son', it will not be the last. I very much enjoyed reading about Alice, her husband and two sons.  A well written book that i can recommend.  

My thanks to Netgalley and the Publishers for my copy.  This is my honest review, which i have voluntarily given.