Member Reviews

Another excellent book from Emma Curtis, thank you Netgalley and Penguin Random House.
Jenny and Leo Creasey have a baby at the same time, Hannah Faulkner loses hers. What happens next is a buzzard chain of events that affects everyone’s lives for the next 18 years.
The characters are very well built and each section is written from a different persons point of view but this doesn’t distort the story. It follows along in sequence and you can really get into everyone’s heads.
The tension that builds up quickly from the start never disappears and I couldn’t stop reading. I just wanted them to find Zoe and couldn’t leave the page until she was safe and well.
A great page turning thriller that will have you hooked from the start

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It’s difficult to imagine how you’d cope with your newborn baby being stolen from hospital. Even more so when she finds you again at age sixteen. Brilliantly tense and exciting story of sheer desperation and the lifelong consequences of a split-second decision.

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Oh my word I absolutely love Emma's books and this one certainly didn't disappoint I couldn't put it down and with each page I turned the intensity of this psychological thriller increased and my heart rate increased waiting to find out what happened next. The characters all draw you
in in their own way and the protagonists were incredibly believable. The storyline was gripping throughout and also fast paced. At times the story was quite chilling and you could feel the characters emotions as the story unfolded. I think This storyline would make an amazing psychological drama series for t.v.

This was the perfect book to escape with during lockdown and reading this gave me a break from the realities of real life for a while. I most definitely feel this is a 5 star read.

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Once again, Emma Curtis has managed to ramp up the tension to the max, until you are almost breathless with anticipation to find out what's going to happen. As it gallops towards its conclusion it's impossible to put it down. Dark, unsettling and clever.

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When Jenny and Leo welcome their daughter, Sophie, into the world Jenny thinks their life is complete. Leo knows that he isn’t the father but he can never tell Jenny that. 17 year old Hannah arrives home from hospital with her own daughter, Zoe, but events unfold when Leo and Hannah meet and two world are devastated.
16 years later, Zoe wants to know the truth about her family and things take a dark turn.
I honestly wasn’t sure about this book as I started reading it, told in four parts the first part seemed slow but soon it picked up and I was engrossed. Definitely a page turner! Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

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This book is such a riveting read I couldn’t put it down, I needed to know what happens to all the character in the story. The story revolves round Jenny and her husband Leo. Jenny has just given birth to a much longed for daughter. Lenny suspects Leo isn’t the baby’s father, she has had a one night stand, and Leo knows he is definitely not. Jenny’s baby daughter Sophie is stolen from the hospital shortly after her birth. A few days earlier a young 17 year old Hannah has also given birth to a daughter, Hannah lives alone having been cast out by her family. Events take an unexpected turn the same night Jenny has given birth with terrible consequences for both Jenny and Hannah. The story moves forward 16 years when Zoe, Hannah’s daughter, reads an article in a newspaper on the 16th anniversary of Jenny’s missing daughter and terrible consequences ensue. The book is totally gripping, it is absolutely compelling, a dark and shocking story which keeps you engrossed till the end. The characters are well drawn, you feel compassion for some them but are revolted by others such is the author’s well written portrayal of them. A book I would have no hesitation in recommending.
My thanks to NetGalley, Random House Uk, Transworld Publishers and to Emma Curtis the author for this ARC

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Just occasionally a character comes along who I want to meet in real life so I can punch them in the face. Leo is one of those characters. The repercussions of his cowardly, selfish actions have devastating consequences for three very different women. This is a great read, perfectly pitched to ratchet up the tension to the nail biting conclusion. Can't recommend it highly enough.

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Starts off with a deception and you are then drawn to choosing sides between the main couple Jenny and Leo.

Jenny gives birth to a baby girl. Leo knows it cannot be his but Jenny doesn't know this and the secret of her having a one night stand is unspoken.

However what follows forever links them to Hannah a recently bereaved young mother. Is she calculating? Scared? Suffering post natal? It is hard to put together in your mind that any sane person would commit the crime she then does. Leo meets Hannah on a dark rainy evening after drink driving, which leads to a life changing moment for all involved.

Jennys baby goes missing. Out of Jenny and Leo, one of them knows how and why, fakes emotion and is lying, whilst the other is distraught.

On the anniversary of the 16th birthday of Jennys baby another appeal is issued. Which sparks of a chain of events when a young girl finds links that could mean she is the missing baby. Unbeknown to her that she might not be welcomed with open arms.

Some want the truth to stay hidden, to 'keep her quiet'.

Had me gripped. Some parts I did question how believable they were but won't give anything anyway but overall an intense, addictive read.

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I absolutely enjoyed this from page one. The premise sounded great, though not original, the author definitely put her own spin on it!

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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5 great stars!

This book was great, despite having a horrible main character, I was gripped with what twists and turns would be next.

Short snappy chapters told from different points of views, you engage with all the main characters, culminating in a brilliant ending.

Recommended.

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A woman and a teenager give birth to baby girls in different hospitals.
Jenny is married to Leo and becomes pregnant - unbeknownst to her is that her husband Leo has had a vasectomy so he knows that she has cheated on him but can’t tell her.
Hannah is alone as she has been cast out by her religious family. Her baby dies and she literally collides with Leo who is driving whilst drunk. Hannah convinces Leo he killed her baby.
Somehow they come up with a plan for Hannah to take his baby as Leo never wanted to have children and Hannah feels he doesn’t deserve to be a father.
The main characters aren’t that likeable.
Fast forward 16 years to Zoe - who is Jenny/Hannah’s daughter becomes obsessed with Jenny’s story of her baby being stolen.. She searches her mum’s things and find’s Jenny’s baby’s hospital bracelet and becomes determined to find out the truth.
Jenny , for some reason, stays with Leo even after he refuses to have another child and tells her he has just had a vasectomy to make sure he can’t.
Leo drugs and kidnaps Zoe - what will he do with her?
Most of the book I spent wishing that Jenny would dump Leo or something bad would happen to him as he was a horrible person and that was my main motivation for reading until the end.
The last third of the book is the best part and tension builds up to the ending.

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Jenny and Leo are husband and wife. Jenny gives birth to a little girl called Sophie but Leo knows she is not his baby.
A young single mother called Hannah also gives birth to a baby girl and on her first night at home mistakenly smothers her and is grief stricken when she realises what she has done.
When she runs out in the night carrying her dead baby she literally runs into Leo who is driving down to their second home. Leo has been drinking during the drive and when Hannah accuses him of killing her baby he believes her.
Between them they concoct an outrageous plot to kidnap Sophie so that Hannah can raise her as her own. This has enormous repercussions for all concerned and is the basis for the story which is told over the next eighteen years from the perspective of each of the characters involved.
The characters leap out at you – Leo loves his wife, Jenny, but comes across as totally selfish throughout and this is highlighted by his actions particularly towards the end of the book. Hannah is fairly weak and vulnerable and this is also revealed with her actions later on. Jenny is a stronger character and makes changes to her life to help compensate her huge loss and grief and is the one you feel sorry for..
This book is a real page turner as it is so difficult to see what will be the fate of baby Sophie. A book with great characters and a great plot. What more could one want?
Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me a preview of this exciting book.

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Wow wow wow is all I have to say about this book. I enjoyed every bit. It keeps you gripped and grab your attention. I cannot recommend this book enough Emma Curtis is extremely talented & this is not to be missed!

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Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher and most importantly Emma Curtis who is one of my favourite authors, This had everything, great storyline, great characters and will keep you hooked from the beginning to the end.

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Not an original storyline but the writing style is gripping and more than makes up for it!

Lots of bad decisions by characters felt like real good reading!

What shocked me the most was Leo, aftering his actions just reading his name made me angry. Always a good sign when a story brings the reader emotion!

The chapters leading up to end ending were tense. I wasn’t sure if I was going to like the ending but it was sensible.

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Thanks to Netgalley and to Random House UK for sending me a widget to download this ARC.

Jenny has just given birth to a baby that Leo, her husband, knows isn’t his, because he had had a vasectomy prior to meeting Jenny. Shortly after the birth, he is drunk driving and hits a woman, Hannah, and her baby. He believes he has killed her baby and suggests that she go to the hospital to steal Jenny’s baby, which she does. Then 16 years later, when Leo and Jenny are making a televised appeal for their daughter to come forward if she is out there and suspects something is strange about the family raising her, Zoe starts to wonder is she is their daughter.

I liked this book, and I preferred it to the previous one I had read from this author. I thought there were a lot of coincidences and things that had to line up just so in order to make the story work, but that is necessary in some thrillers. I thought some of the behavior of the characters was definitely questionable, like why would you accept your wife’s baby isn’t yours and not even say anything about it? But overall, this book held my interest and I mostly enjoyed it.

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This book is really good it’s so addictive you don’t want to stop reading, the story line is so clever about a young girl who really didn’t know what to do and just panicked which has dire Consequences for so many people I couldn’t read the book fast enough wanting to know what happens next definitely recommend it was excellent and want to thank Netgalley and the publisher for letting me read it.

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I really enjoyed the start of this book and felt it had the potential to be a really good story. However, for some reason I found the rest of the book harder to enjoy, it felt a bit slow, and I found myself wanting to skip chapters. None of the characters were particularly likeable and made a lot of questionable decisions, that were still questionable even after explanations were provided. I also found the ending, whilst possibly the most believable element, a bit flat. .

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Very disturbing story. It opens with Hannah and Jenny both having baby girls. Hannah is a teenage mother and her first night home, trying to keep her daughter warm in her bed, accidentally suffocates her. Jenny spending her first night in hospital, alone as her husband Leo has found an excuse not to be at the birth as he knows the child being born is not his. So he has taken himself off to his country cottage and on the way back, he knocks down Hannah who has run out into the road in a panic to get help. Here the story takes an unbelievable turn as Hannah manages to convince Leo that he has killed her daughter. So Leo says you can take my wife’s baby. And yes she does. Story spans Zoe, the daughter life to her teens. At age 16 yrs old the idea is put into her head that she could be the missing daughter of Jenny as she does a police appeal. Her life is then put into danger.

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Immediately formed a dislike for the main male character which continued throughout the story. Slightly unbelievable in places, but with a good twist at the end.

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