I was given this book for free in return for an honest review. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and couldn’t put it down, staying up all night to find out how it would end. It was well written and I could easily ‘see’ the scenes and made connections with the characters, often leaving me tearful. I would recommend this to both family and friends. I’m off to find some of her other books.

i loved this book, i can't imagine how hard it must be to have to decide which child to save in an accident. it gripped from start to finish. amazing!

Laura Jarratt's Mother is a thought-provoking novel about a mother who makes a difficult decision in the midst of tragedy and must live with the consequences. A difficult read with a great premise, an interesting plot, and believable characters.

The most brilliant first chapter of a book I've ever read! Heart-stoppingly horrifying. As a mother of two girls, my skin actually chilled at the choice Lizzie had to make. I read this as part of a book group (in chunks) and was desperate to know the secrets as they kept unfurling. Uncomfortable but unputdownable. Loved this whilst also being horrified!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in return for a fair and honest review.

I read this book as part of an Online Reading Group on Facebook alongside 75 other readers and we read the book in 3 parts over a period of 3 week.

Mother is a very emotional, thought-provoking tale which deeply affected me as a parent. Lizzie is a mother of 2 daughters and on her return trip from a holiday she has a car crash and is faced with the worst possible decision any parent could have to make.

Months after the horrific tragedy Lizzie is now being investigated by the police over the crash and is struggling to come to terms with her decision whilst seeing the rest of her family around her collapse in grief and guilt.

This is a very cleverly written story as the author takes the reader on a very twisty and highly emotional journey with Lizzie and the tension starts mounting when outside factors start to appear.

Overall, Mother will tug at your heartstrings, keep you glued to the pages and make you think about your own family.

This book is about a family consumed by grief and guilt, especially the Mother. Lizzie is driving home from a holiday with her two daughters, Portia and Becca. Due to work commitments Dan, her husband, had to stay at home. She is driving in the dark and in the pouring rain when she is blinded by lights and her car crashes into a lake. Lizzie realises that she can only save one of her daughters and has the heartbreaking decision to make as to which one. We learn that one of them is her biological daughter and one her adopted daughter and we feel her desperation at the decision she has to make. After thr crash Lizzie suffers from amnesia as the police investigate they become convinced that she must have fallen asleep at the wheel. Lizzie is certain that she didn’t but what really happened? We go through the guilt and torment of the family especially when they question whether it is someone from their past cases as they are both lawyers and the police uncover that Lizzie’s brakes had been cut. As the investigation progresses the pressure and stress build on Lizzie and Dan and their relationship. This is a book that had me gripped from the start. They mystery of what happened that night is gripping as we are taken on a roller coaster of a read with so many twists and turns which made a very thought provoking story. A highly recommended read.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

Whenever a book cover or a book review suggests that “reader of Jodi picoult will enjoy this”, I know that the book is for me
I was absorbed into this book from the very first page.
It was a tense book with little twists dropped throughout. I was a huge fan of the short chapters. I would get to the end of one and just wanted to keep reading more. I was particularly fond of Lizzie. She was such a warm, welcoming character, despite everything that she had been through. The writer is a superb writer and I felt like I was living the grief with Lizzie.
I guessed that the suspect was a woman, but no idea for the motive and I felt like everything tied together nicely
Not sure I could be as forgiving as Lizzie, but it all made sense

I absolutely loved this book and will look out for more by the author

Loved the premise of the book where an accident caused the car to crash into the water where mother Lizzie had the option of saving only one of her daughters. This story dealt with the aftermath and repercussions of that line decision.

My first foray into author Laura Jarratt’s writing. I loved the concept. The chapter of her diving into the cold water to save her daughter then attempting to go back to save the other, followed by near death of both was excruciating and exhilarating. I could imagine the scene as it happened.

There was suspense in the writing when the cops were called in. Had Lizzie caused the accident or was there something darker at play. Twists took hold of the prose, and it held me in delicious enthrall.

Then came my niggles. Nothing happened beyond the first section. The story was slow, and apparently the blurb content was all that was exciting about the book. That was a pity as this had potential and could have been one of the best thrillers.

So all my love was for the first few chapters. 9 to be precise.

A gripping and unputdownable thriller that I had to read in one sitting, Mother is a compelling but chilling read that stirs up deep and raw emotions.

With a heavy focus on grief and loss, this isn’t an easy book to read and I must give a trigger warning of the death of a child and discussions around depression and suicide. But it isn’t all hard-hitting and bleak, as Jarratt explores the story in such a sensitive and engrossing way that you feel determined to ride this journey with Lizzie and her family to make it out on the other side.

The emotions in this book feel so genuine that I had to take a break after the shocking opening chapters. As Lizzie is faced with an impossible decision that no parent ever hopes to have to make, I could feel her despair completely. It’s a desperate situation that nobody wants to face, but it certainly makes for one impacting opening to a book.

However, Jarrat handles the story remarkably. What I loved most is that she doesn’t go overboard by putting shocks ahead of believability or push emotions aside just to write a thriller that will have a lasting effect. Instead, the events that play out at the end feel just as genuine as the harrowing start and not once did I feel let down by the direction it takes.

Told through two points of view, one being an unknown narrator who is stalking Lizzie and her family, you know to expect some shocks and twists along the way and Jarratt does not disappoint. The whole book is fast-paced and easy to read but the ending is especially adrenaline-fuelled and leaves you with the same question of what you would do in this situation. Because motherhood is hard, and there’s never an easy path to take.

A thought-provoking and effective read, Mother may be too depressing for some readers, but for me, it left its mark. This pulled on all of my emotions and it’s definitely a book that will stay with me.

Oh god what a truly awful choice she had to make 😔 I felt so bad for her throughout the book knowing I couldn’t do that myself but then knowing of course you would if you had to also!

What a great book though, full of twists and turns and it has you hooked from the start, I ploughed through it within the day and couldn’t put it down, can’t wait to read more from the author!!!

Lizzie Fulton (45), a family-law barrister, is driving her two children, Portia (15) and Becca (7), home after a holiday in the Scottish Borders when their car careers off the road in rainy weather. It plunges into a lake and Lizzie manages to escape the car as it starts sinking to the bottom. She dives down to try and rescue the girls but, tragically, is only able to save one of them.

As the family grieves and comes to terms with becoming a family of three, the police investigation reveals that it may not have been an accident after all.

Lizzie can't remember what happened – did she fall asleep at the wheel? – and carries so much guilt, and husband, Dan, a criminal law barrister, also feels guilty for staying at home to work and for not being there for his family when they needed him. The couple are torn apart by the tragedy and their emotions and struggle to remain strong for their remaining daughter.

Such an awful and heart-breaking choice that Lizzie had to make. Having two children of my own, it really made me think about what I'd do in this horrendous situation.

This was a gripping, tense and thought-provoking read with some surprising revelations. The family's grief is raw and overwhelming and very well described. The story made me feel very emotional at times and had some surprising twists and turns.

This is a great read and a well detailed plot that kept me engaged from the very start.
I really liked the well thought out characters and found them to be believable. I cannot wait to read what the author brings out next.

Everybody has those “what if” moments. When you’re just getting on with your day and then a ridiculous or unplausible question enters your mind and you think about what you would do even though you know you’re never going to have to make the choice because it won’t ever really happen to you.

Except for Lizzie, the unthinkable does happen. In Mother, on a torrid rainy drive back from a holiday with her two daughters, Portia and Becca, Lizzie crashes the car. As they plummet into a nearby lake, Lizzie must make a choice no mother should ever have to. She can only get one of her daughters out of the car – which one can she save – and which one will be left to die?

Just in case this wasn’t traumatic enough – for Lizzie and her husband Dan and their one remaining daughter to then have to work out how to survive and go on as a family of three, when they were once a family of four – the realisation soon hits that maybe the car crash wasn’t an accident after all. Maybe the crash was caused deliberately. Maybe somebody else chose for one of their daughters to die that night…

I cannot even begin to describe how much I loved this book. It was beautifully haunting with a concept so thought-provoking I genuinely could not get the story off my mind. The writing was raw and mesmerising, with lingering, slow-burning tension and pure emotion concealed in every sentence.

I was hooked from the opening few chapters where the lead up to the accident had me biting my nails in anticipation of the scene about to unfold. Already, just from the build up in the first chapter, I was fascinated by the family dynamics, by Lizzie’s relationship with her daughters and her marriage to Dan. Both lawyers in different fields, there was something so intriguing about Lizzie and Dan and I felt like they both had a story to tell.

Throughout Mother, I suspected everyone of wrongdoing - there was definitely a lot of trust issues on my behalf! Even though trust is a concern in this book, with the fears that the crash was more than an accident, there was so much more simmering away in Mother and I was utterly obsessed with it.

The author wrote such a beautiful and heart-breaking portrayal of grief and her observations were probably my favourite part of the novel. Between Lizzie, Dan and the daughter who survives, naturally each one grieves differently, and often separately, and this was truly heart-wrenching to read. Grief is at the core of this book and it is moving and powerful. Laura Jarratt shows how grief is so personal and individual – everybody experiences it differently and it doesn’t matter how strong that person may come across, there is no escaping it.

There is not much that can be said about the book without spoiling the story and its chilling and sickening twists. I will say that there is one part towards the end that had me reading with my heart in my mouth – it was so high in emotion and tension and really encapsulated everything I loved about this book. Mother is one of the best books I have read in a long time.

A tragic incident leaves a mother with an impossible decision that she hasn’t got time to think about - an awful choice no parent should ever have to make, but was the incident a tragic accident or was it caused by something more sinister! this highly emotive story leaves you feeling like you’ve been centre of this traumatic event. An Utterly gripping and intense novel that I would recommend in a heartbeat but I would definitely give a warning to anyone who read it. ‘This book will emotionally drain you’

Mother is the story of Lizzie who is driving home from holiday with her two daughters in the back of the car. They are involved in a terrible car accident and Lizzie is thrown into every Mother's worst nightmare.... she can only save the life of one of her daughters and she has to choose which one! This book is basically my worst nightmare, and I really mean, I have had horrible nightmares about having to choose between my boys. Why would I choose to read a book so triggering and emotionally charged? Because apparently I have a sadistic side! Ha ha ha... And yes, at first I was really struggling with what was happening but I persevered and I'm so glad I did. As Lizzie's life was shown to be so different to mine it made everything easier and I was able to pull back on the emotions and settle in to the story. The author did an amazing job of writing the different ways that people grieve, the emotions people go through and the effects it has on their whole lives. About 2 thirds of the way through the book Lizzie figures out exactly what happened the night of the accident and the book then turns more from a thriller to a story of loss and life after losing a loved one.
After spending such a long time dreading reading this book I ended up really enjoying it.

This is one of those ‘What if …?’ conversation starters. What if you’re driving down a dark, winding country road late at night with your two daughters asleep on the back seat, happy and content after a lovely week away from the stress of work and school. All of a sudden, something flashes into your peripheral vision, causing you to lose focus and you swerve off the road, onto the embankment, through the trees and you land up plunging into an icy lake. You manage to free yourself from your seatbelt, but as the car quickly sinks into the depths, you realise with absolute dread that you will only have time to rescue one of your daughters in the back! Which one will it be?

This is what happens to Lizzie and her daughters, sullen teenager Portia, and bright, sunny Becca, who’s the image of Lizzie herself. They’ve just spent a week away in the countryside and are on their way back home to husband and father Dan. After stopping off at a village shop, they’re back on the road, and Lizzie is eager to get home, but wondering if it might have been a mistake to have left so late, as now they’re travelling in the dark, the weather is awful, the rain is bucketing down and the roads are quite twisty and what do you know … there’s no phone signal out there, as it’s quite remote. The girls fall asleep in the back seat and Lizzie is driving along the quiet road. It seems like she’s the only car out there, but suddenly … she’s not quite sure … she sees something in the trees up ahead. Maybe something like a flash of light? She’s not really sure but she carries on driving. And then, suddenly, blinding lights are coming right at her and Lizzie has no choice but to swerve off the road. Before she knows it she’s lost all control of the car and she can’t seem to get the brakes to do what they’re meant to do. They’re crashing through trees and branches and it’s all happening at breakneck speed, until they land up in a lake and start sinking … fast!

Lizzie knows she is panicking and not thinking straight but she manages to get her seatbelt off. The water is freezing and a frightening clarity dawns on her: she is only going to have time to save one of the girls in the back of the car. There simply won’t be time to save them both! Instinct takes over. She really has no idea what she’s doing … or does she? She reaches back, unclasps one of the buckles on a seatbelt and grabs the girl she can get to, pulling her to the surface. She leaves her there, cold and unconscious, and tries to go back for the other one, but it is an impossible task. The lake is too deep and she has lost her bearings. She returns to the daughter she has rescued, knowing she did all she could do, knowing it wasn’t enough.

What really happened that night on the road and in the lake? That’s what the police want to know when they come calling. They don’t believe Lizzie when she says she can’t remember. They insist that she must have fallen asleep at the wheel, but she’s sure that’s not what happened. And which daughter did she save? Laura Jarratt does an excellent job stringing the reader along for a few chapters before she reveals the answer.

Is there a possibility that some external element, another party played a role in what happened on the road that night? Could there have been some sort of foul play? After all, both Lizzie and Dan are criminal lawyers so there’s a slim chance that someone may have been trying to get back at one of them for something … isn’t there? The tension builds throughout and one can almost feel the pain that this family is going through. Not only have they lost a child, but it seems they’re being accused of having done something, only they’re not quite sure what.

Lizzie, Dan and their surviving daughter all have to struggle through their grief in their own vastly different ways. They also need to try and lean on each other and remain united as a family in the face of all that’s thrown at them. Can they manage to remain a strong unit or will they crumble and be unable to cope with the barrage of accusations they’re faced with? And will Lizzie eventually remember what actually happened that night?

Laura Jarratt has created a tense, character driven, riveting story that will make you wonder what lengths you would go to in order to protect those you love, especially if you are a mother. What if you find yourself in an untenable situation? What then? This is a conversation starter that will probably leave you with even more questions than answers. You’ll certainly be left thinking about it long after you finish that last page. 4 stars from me.

Driving home late at night with her two daughters in the car, Lizzie is involved in a car accident and is forced to make a horrific decision - which of her daughters to save first, and which to leave to die. The rest of the book explores the impact of this decision, but also follows the search to uncover the cause of the accident.

I got off to a bad start with this book as I was immediately annoyed by the contrived way we were kept from knowing which daughter had been saved for several chapters as every single person refers to them as "your daughter" rather than by name. The way the police investigated didn't ring true, but there were several instances throughout the novel where characters behaved in ways that just didn't make that much sense, particularly the silly ending of the book where the accident is explained. It was okay, but I disliked more about it than I enjoyed.

My Thoughts: Laura’s writing drew me in instantly, it had a way of making you feel like you were there within the story! – when the car crash happened I found myself gripping the arm of the sofa, as if that would save me? 😂

When the car went under the water & Lizzie was struggling to firstly get herself out and then the daughter that she chose, I found myself holding my breath too, it’s crazy when a book effects you physically in that way, but it left me invested in the story.

I loved the fact that the truth about which daughter was saved was kept from us at first, it left me looking for any little clue that the author may have left us and following them like a trail, I have to be honest though I was completely wrong!

As well as having to deal with the fact that she essentially left one of her daughters to die, Lizzie then gets accused of falling asleep at the wheel and causing the accident and although she had no memory of what happened she is 100% sure that that didn’t happen, right?

The rest of the story is the family coming to terms with the loss of a daughter and a sister and the guilt they’re all feeling because of it, all of them in their own way, as well as the police trying to work out what really happened that night.

A thriller with a story that wasn’t obvious in any way and constantly had you thinking about who you could trust.

🐧❤️

Once I picked up Mother I couldn't put it down! I was caught in its vice-like grip from the start and was only released (one numb bum later) when I turned the final page. It is so compelling that you can't help but be drawn into the story and be affected by the disturbing events within. My heart went out to every single character in the book and I wouldn't want to trade places with any of them.

Lizzie is faced with an unenviable dilemma when her car plunges into a lake with her two children in the backseat; she only has time to save one of her daughters. We don't know which one she chose for a few chapters but you can't help wondering which one it is. Dealing with both grief and guilt, Lizzie has a mountain of a recovery to climb and although she can't remember all of the details about the accident, something just doesn't add up. The police seem to be blinkered in their investigation so Lizzie and her husband, Dan rack their brains to see who might want to take revenge on them. As they are both barristers, they could have a long list!

There is so much to discover in this amazing book: which daughter survived, why Lizzie picked her and what really happened that night, to name but a few. I devoured every single page as if I'd been starved of books and felt so many emotions as the story unfolded. I was devastated, not just at the grief experienced from the death of a child but at the guilt each character felt: Dan thinks it wouldn't have happened if he had been there, Lizzie feels responsible for selecting a child to survive and one of her daughters has survivor's guilt.

Incredibly thought-provoking, completely devastating but terribly compelling, Mother really got under my skin as I lived and breathed with the characters. This would be an amazing book for book groups as you can't help wondering what you would have done in the same terrible circumstances. A wonderful book to remind you that time is so precious and to be grateful for every second you spend with your loved ones.

I received an ARC to read and review for the blog tour and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

This is a raw novel. It will probably tear you apart but it does it in such a well constructed way.

The author slowly builds the suspense here giving the reader a sense of claustrophobia and mental stress that mirrors the one the main character and her family are in. The pain they experience is the worst one but the book never gets on the easy track of melodrama; it stays rational despite the sadness and search for answers.

The family relations are beautifully described and we can see growth in all characters. The resolution is... touching, hard, horrible, perfect. I have no idea what I'd do in her shoes but I think she was incredibly brave.

I'd like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review.